Once saw a man at Bristol Zoo tell his children to "watch out for those tapirs, they might jump at you" Yes becuase tapir are reputed for leaping at people.........
When I was at Frankfurt Zoo in the 80's I remember standing in the Grzimekhaus watching a Springhare bouncing around it's enclosure. An American couple walked up and the guy, in a southern drawl said "Awwww, it's just nothin' but a jackrabbit" and they turned to leave. As they turned, a Senegal Bushbaby ran through a tree branch and leapt across the exhibit to a branch on the otherside - a distance of about 8 feet. "There's a bird in there!" the man proclaimed "There's a bird, I saw it fly!" And the one I get frequently is "Koalas are always asleep because they are 'high' on all the eucalyptus oil". Hix
The best one I have heard (which I actually find quite sad) was in London's Natural History Museum this year. A young boy and his mum were looking at a stuffed Tiger eating an antelope, and both the mother and child comment on the "pretty Lion". I find it a sad state of affairs that children can no longer tell the difference between two of the most popular animals in the animal kingdom I worry what this means for the future... Luckily there are plenty of enthusiastic youngsters still around (a few names from ZooChat spring to mind!!) for future hope
I hear that one quite often. Another one of my favourites which was at the cheetah enclosure, where some stupid kid says "that doesn't look so fast". No, of course it doesn't look fast - it's asleep!
I know you can't really put a definitive blame on this one, but I find it irritating that every visitor assumes that every animal they see is a 'him', and it's even sadder when you hear people calling lionesses and the like 'him'. If you don't know what gender it is, just say 'it', it's not going to understand you, it won't be offended! And when you yourself know the gender of an individual, it gets frustrating for me to watch Yasmin the Snow Leopard at Marwell with people saying "isn't he beautiful."
At Dublin last week a bongo was identified as a zebra and an African Wild Dog as a Jaguar (because a sign along the road said jaguars), and later as a hyena.
I find it annoying when someone descrbes an ape as a monkey. On more then one occasion I have noticed people becomming excited when the see a sign saying red panda and are then disappointed when they see the animal. I guess they are expecting a giant panda that is red and white.
Winds me up too, I am forever biting my tongue at zoos to stop myself correcting people, my friends think it is hilarious!!
I lost count of the number of visitors at Chester before the new entrance opened, who used to ask where the monkey (i.e. Orang Utan) house was. I would direct them only to be asked, 'is that where the car park is?' I never could work out why they didn't just ask for the way out in the first place.
The most annoying one is when lemurs and apes are called monkeys...I'm sure lemurs get all sorts of strange names...
Oh this will get ya! The last time i visited Jersey 5 years ago [i guess], i had walked away from the outdoor Gorilla enclosure to photograph the bronze Jambo statue just off the exhibit. My wife stayed back at the enclosure but within minutes she had rushed up to me and told me what she had heard right next to her. This is it..lol Q.."What are these"? A.."Rhinos i think" Absolute true story
