Cleveland Botanical Garden's Spiny Desert exhibit has small animals from Madagascar- Birds (red fody, etc.) Lesser hedgehog tenrec Radiated tortoise Oustalet's chameleon Madagascar hissing cockroach etc. Someone called the tortoises, "different from the turtles at the [Cleveland] aquarium!"
Misconception and mispronounciation here: I've heard Dhole mistaken for Red fox, and also the name mispronounced as "Dohlee" and "Dee-hole!"
What I usually heard: 1. Apes (Gorillas, Orangutans, Chimps) = Monkeys 2. Koalas = Cute and Cuddly Bear 3. Hippopotami = Rhinoceros 4. Every Clownfish = Nemo 5. Every Blue Tang = Dory
I recently were on safari in Masai Mara (Kenya, Africa), and an older man asked the guide if there were many tigers in the area...
A tiger in Africa? I thought that only happens when the flying circus is in town Although it more goes to show how insanely dominant Africa (esp Kenya) is in media and zoos. Nearly every decent sized zoo seems to have an "african" area to it which is often one of the biggest focuses of the design. So its no surprise that other whole continents and countries and regions are significantly overlooked in terms of what species are and are not shown. TV is the same, though a lot better now, but there's still a heavy abundance of african based wildlife shows.
Any small mammal= rodent. When I was in seventh grade I had a really difficult time convincing my english class that mongooses were not. I also couldn't get them to believe that they were in a different carnivora family from weasels.
Yesterday I heard a grown couple, with no kids, ponder what that large spotted cat was and they finally settled on it obviously being a leopard... It was an ocelot, they were two foot from the sign, and my five year old daughter took great delight in laughing at them and pointing out they were wrong!
I repeat, two bloody foot away from a sign! And there are two exhibits side by side, both with plenty of information about... ocelots, surprisingly enough!
