Misidentified Animals

both ring-tailed lemurs and red pandas - raccoons
pelican - albatross
and on many, surpisingly many occasions, scarlet ibis - baby flamingo

 

I remember when some people thought the aardvarks in the Bushbaby House at London Zoo's Children's zoo were bushbabies and said that they leapt from tree to tree

 

I got a new one today- I was trying to spy the takins as they were hiding behind their little hill, and a couple with a young child come up. So I point them out, tell them their names, and the dad interrupts me with a "Look at those wildebeest!"... I was going to tell them more, but I was once again too flabbergasted.

 

Well, arguably closer than a 'bee-stung moose'

 

I was at the zoo yesterday and the family that was walking in front of me, made me laugh so much.
Tufted Capuchin → Chimpanzee
Caracal → Hyena
Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman → Crocodile (this is not too bad)
Blue Wildebeest → Buffalo
Common Eland → Waterbuck
Helmeted Guineafowl → Baby Ostrich
Black-backed Jackal → Fox

 

Often people doesn't really look and think. They "believe" because thinking is too complicated. But sometimes it isn't that easy to identify an animal. In my case I hate to identify cichlides
And this bird is also one of these x or y or both in one (=hybrid)....

 

I was at Chester recently when a visitor corrected a small group who thought Fossas are cats, by telling them they were mustelids. I think he did it on purpose to further confuse them.

 

I went to Chimelong before, I do see misidentifications like Collared lemurs misidentified as Brown lemurs.

 

Chimpanzees=Bonobos
Sitatungas=Bongos(This, I've heard a lot)
Wild Ass=Pony
Elephantnose ghost Shark=Elephant
Sawfish=Sawshark
Striped Hyena=Wolf
Wolf=Coyote
Oryx=Big Gazelle
Bison=A big cow
Tarsier=Mouse lemur
Aardvark=Anteater
Dhole=Fox
Emu=Ostrich
Tiger=Lion(Can't believe kids would get this wrong, it's the classic ABC animal)
Eland=Kudu
Crab Eating Racoon=Civet
Indopacific finless porpoise=Beluga
Aquariums say False killer whales are related to whales, not dolphins which is outright wrong!

 

Did you hear all of these misidentifications made in Japan?

 

When I visited Tierpark Berlin a few weeks ago someone referred to the bush dogs as "Schweinehunde" - translated: Pigdogs (in german the phrase "innerer Schweinehund" is used to describes someone's weaker self, or someones lack of willpower)

 

@PossumRoach, for most of them, yes, but for the crab eating raccoon one, I heard a friend mention and I included it

 

I've seen visitors thinking that house mice were elephant shrews and that an aardvark was a bushbaby that leapt from tree to tree.

 

African wild dogs called hyenas. Roseate spoonbills called flamingos.

I feel like most people, when they don't recognize an animal, just default to calling it the name of the most similar animal they can think of. Even if the sign identifying the animal is right there, ha ha. Most people probably don't pay enough attention to animals to notice the difference between species like African wild dogs and hyenas.

 

I guess this misidentification is common because my local zoo(Zoorasia) even has a sign telling people that these are not Hyenas. And they still do it.

 

When I visit zoos in China and U.S., many people calls the Dhole/Asiatic Wild Dog as fox.
Also one thing, when I visit Columbus zoo some people called Wolverine a "Skunk", not sure if it is links to the Ohio Michigan game.

 

I think the craziest one I’ve heard at my local zoo was calling a Eastern Black and White Colobus a “baby gorilla.” I can’t wrap my head around how that person thinks gorillas work.

I’ve also heard people misidentify tawny frogmouths as owls, scarlet ibises as flamingos, and African painted dogs as hyenas. These wouldn’t be too bad, and pretty understandable mixups for people who aren’t very knowledgable about animals, except all of those instances were right next to signs saying that animals aren’t what they were misidentified as.

My local zoo also has both a dwarf crocodile and pygmy hippos, and if I had a dollar for each time someone said “Look at the baby crocodile/hippo!” I’d be rich.

All of these were from adults, but I don’t really hold it against kids when they mix them up. They’re still learning, and it’s kinda cute seeing them try to figure out what an animal is with their limited vocabulary. I think the best I’ve heard from a kid was calling a crowned lemur a “fox monkey”.

 

Tbf, pygmy hippos and dwarf crocs have really baby-like portions, especially their face

 

Fair! Honestly, they’re just as cute as the babies sometimes haha

 

Two years late, reminded me of this clip