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Five Parrots Separated After Encouraging One Another to Curse at Zoo Visitors

Despite being cursed at, none of the British zoo’s visitors complained, and most found them amusing. Welcome to 2020.

Michael Hunter, MD
4 min readOct 2, 2020

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Photo by Tavis Beck on Unsplash

Only two types of animals can speak the human language. Do you know what they are? If you guessed birds and humans, you are spot on. Good day. Today, I look forward to sharing a funny story about English parrots with you, ones who delight in swearing. First, some background.

Parrots telling folks to f*** off is something that adds to the surrealism of 2020. Today we turn to this odd tale from the United Kingdom. But first, I want to provide a bit of background about these remarkable birds.

As you know, most birds cannot imitate human speech. But, a subset can. These include:

  • mynah birds
  • crows
  • ravens
  • parrots

Parrots learn vocally. They learn sounds by hearing and then imitating them. But how? A 2015 research study offers some answers. Duke University (USA) neuroscientist Erich Jarvis explains that:

“Any bird that’s a vocal learner has a part of the brain devoted to this, called the…

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Michael Hunter, MD
Michael Hunter, MD

Written by Michael Hunter, MD

I have degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Penn. I am a radiation oncologist in the Seattle area. You may find me regularly posting at www.newcancerinfo.com

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