Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Swear And Tear

This Takes Bird-Watching To Extremes

A Chinese zoo caged a cheeky mynah bird for 15 days for being abusive to tourists. Eight-year-old Mimi was put in solitary confinement at Yuelishan Park in Changsha city, after a visitor complained. She had to stay in a darkened cage and listen to recordings of polite conversation in a bid to improve her behaviour. A park spokesman said: "When she swears, the feeder refuses to feed her. And while she's confined, we play her tapes of polite speech." The park officials say the sentence has cured Mimi of her habit, and that she is now welcoming guests pleasantly.

FOOTNOTE: Major issue, mynah solution.

10 comments:

Akelamalu said...

Chastising a Mynah bird? Love the footnote, you slay me David! LOL

Casdok said...

oops! I must remember to stop being cheeky to tourists!

San said...

Operant conditioning for talking birds. B.F. Skinner would be proud.

katherine. said...

man...if everytime I swore I didn't get fed....

Rachel said...

Hmmmmm... wonder if this works on family members?

Sara said...

Wonderful. I once knew a Mynah bird that lived in a cafe in Southend on Sea. It could recite the entire menu Monty Python style, i.e. with the insertion of the word 'Spam' every so often.

BondBloke said...

bloody rotters what's wrong with a good old swear from time to time, the *!?~er's should be put in solitary themselves...

CG said...

you couldn't make it up, could you? Incredible LOL

Gerald (Ackworth born) said...

brilliant - I'm laughing so much I've forgotton what I was going to comment on your typewriter post above.

BRUNO said...

Did it swear in Chinese? If not, then who could tell the difference? As a matter of fact, if it DID swear in Chinese---WHO could tell.....?!