[unsnap_biceps]

No, the vast majority of parrots released into the wild will just die a terrible death. They don't have a flock to live with and don't know how to survive. It's like if you took a bunch of TikTok influencers and threw them into a random forest completely without any support or help. Some will figure it out, but most would not, even if the weather won't kill them right away, they'll eat the wrong thing, drink the wrong thing, or not know how to protect themselves from other animals.

[adityaathalye]

Apparently, they actually have a whole hit "reality" show that does it without fatalities; "Naked and Afraid". But they get training, and have an "out" back into civilisation.

So I can completely imagine they---the poor hapless tiktok influencers---meeting the unfortunate captive parrot's fate, if suddenly sent out into the maw of the wild, without any warning, preparation, or way back to second dibs at a home.

[rurban]

Never been to San Francisco, Telegraph Hill apparently. Huge flocks are living there for decades already.

[throwup238]

Oh you sweet summer child, you have clearly never lived in Southern California.

I can identify the flock by the sound they make in the morning.

[vidarh]

Entirely missing the point, which is not that they in general can't survive, but that large proportions of animals who have grown up in captivity won't survive if just dumped out in the wild.

[shevy-java]

Except that there are:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parrot#Other

How many there are in absolute numbers I don't know, but your depiction of all parrots being too stupid to live in the wild is also incorrect. And other animals die too all of the time, so that is not a good assessment.

[squigz]

GP didn't say all parrots wouldn't survive - they said a majority wouldn't without a flock, which your link seems to at least partially agree with.

[nkrisc]

> And other animals die too all of the time

That’s exactly their point, the parrots are no different. The majority will die, which is what they said.