Bird sent to re-education camp in China

From The Telegraph, one of those rare cases where the people in charge stand up to a bad animal - let's hope to see more of this in the coming year:

Bird in solitary confinement after abusing zoo visitors

Chinese zookeepers have sentenced a Vietnamese bird to solitary confinement after visitors taught the animal to greet tourists with a barrage of expletives

Initially the birds, imported to the Chinese zoo from Vietnam, were a success, winning visitors over with their “lovely appearances and clever tongues”.

But in recent weeks zookeepers noticed something was wrong. Instead of greeting tourists with the customary “Ni hao” (Hello), one bird started hurling insults at zoo-goers.

Zookeeper Li Yun told the newspaper he had been appalled by the animal’s sudden outburst. “The Myna has a good memory,” he said.

“Maybe some tourist taught the bird this bad language.”

To avoid contaminating its cage mates, the animal, which was not named, has reportedly been placed in solitary confinement where it is undergoing “special training”.

Keen to rehabilitate the foul-mouthed bird, zookeepers have been playing it tapes containing “polite words”. Future offenders will be deprived of food, the newspaper added.

Meanwhile visitors have been asked to refrain from teaching cuss words to the birds. “Human behaviour will affect the animals,” Mr Li said. A sign has also been erected at the zoo. “'Please do not use foul language to get a rise out of the Myna,” it says.

Video of mynah setting a good example by Flickr user istolethetv.