Misidentified Animals

This has long been a discussion on the thread Things people do that irritate you when you go to the zoo? #2, so I decided to make an entire discussion for it. I’ve heard on Zoo Tours video by @Moebelle that people were calling African wild dogs prairie dogs. I’ve heard gibbons and monkeys (fairly normal), and wallabies as rabbits (apparently because they have large ears). Why yes, observe the wild Australian giant rabbit in captivity...

 

Some that Iv'e heard at my local zoo:

Pygmy Hippo - Pygmy Rhino, malnourished river hippo, baby river hippo

Sumatran Tiger - Lion

Fishing Cat - Bobcat

Sand Cat - Baby Fishing Cat

Serval - Cheetah

Okapi - Zebra, giraffe, antelope, horse, unicorn

Cassowary - Turkey, ostrich, emu, roadrunner

Red Panda - Raccoon, fox

Caribbean Flamingo - Goose

Maned Wolf - Red wolf, red fox

Ring - tailed Lemur - gibbon

Javan Gibbon - monkey

Meerkat - Prairie Dog

Guinea Hog - wild boar

Fossa - weasel

Komodo Dragon - Iguana

Rhinoceros Iguana - Baby Komodo Dragon, green iguana

Spotted Eagle Ray - Manta Ray

 

Indian rhino- hippo
ring tailed lemur- squirrel
Asian water monitor- komodo dragon
bison- cow
ankole Watusi cattle- Texas longhorn
caribou- deer
moose- deer
and probably more that i cant think of.

 

I’m botching a lot of hippo/rhino mixes. The ankole-watusi cows I can understand, though signs are a thing.

 

I mean, I've heard visitors call a Burmese python an otter. There comes a point where you suspect that people are just spitting out random names. Nothing has surprised me since then.

 

The weirdest one I have ever heard.

Asiatic Short Clawed Otter - Crocodile.


Edited as I thought I would add what happened as it is such a strange mix up.

It was what appeared to be quite a well to do posh man who looked to be in his 60s who made the mistake. He also appeared to be on his own at the time. There were a group of people watching the otters. This bloke comes along stoops over people to look, makes this strange snorting noise then in a loud speaking voice says "hmm, crocodiles" in a way that sounds both disappointed and condescending. He then just walks away.

 

I was at the zoo the other day and they had a mixed exhibit with greater Rhea and capybaras. I watched a full grown man point over and say “there’s the ostriches, they’re in with the beavers.”

 

Most of the obvious ones have been mentioned, but I know many people who think Blackbuck are from Africa (one friend even calls them African blackbuck). Many Australasian zoos are happy to mislead the public on this one so they don’t question why the Indian antelope are living in the African Savannah exhibit.

 

A Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur is a lizard.

 

Ouuh, I guess we have a winner!

 

Neither of these are incorrect.

 

Some I've heard

Komodo dragon is an alligator, and more understandably, Mrs. Kipling from Jessie.

African wild dogs- hyenas

Clouded leopard- bobcat or cheetah

Boa constrictor- python

Cownose ray- Manta ray

Beluga whale- dolphin

Harbor seal- sea lion

Giant river otter- sea otter

Drill- baboon

 

At the zoo I volunteer at, a family referd to an amur leopard as a cheetah.

 

In a video I took last year at the Toledo Zoo, you can clearly hear a woman refer to a meerkat as a prairie dog.

On the same day, I remember hearing someone refer to a yak as a buffalo (likely thinking of an American bison).

 

I din’t pay attention to what people say and I only pay attention to signs animals restaurants basically anything in a zoo but people’s chatting.

 

That's pretty average. Cheetah, Leopard, Jaguar, to the common Society today, What's the difference?
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

 

There are only three species of cat. The lion. The tiger. And the spotted one.

 

Your forgetting the house-hold cat! Of course not in zoos.

 

Someone once called a maned wolf a greyhound. I shouldn't be too mad though because they then took the time to read the sign and started going buckwild about how much they smell.