I will watch meerkats if I pass them, though I have only made the effort to walk around and see them at Chester once. (Incidentally, are the aardvarks at Chester back in their own enclosure?) Also flamingos do absolutely nothing for me. The one thing I will actively avoid is arachnids due to a phobia.
I too am not a fan of anything flying too close to me. The bats at Chester are out for me. I can deal with butterfly houses so long as they aren’t really cramped (not a fan of Chester, the Mangrove at Burgers’ is fine, the butterfly house at Wroclaw is okay) and walkthrough aviaries I do approach with some level of caution.
Not yet. The maintenance work they are chrenrlt carrying out didn’t look to have progressed very far yesterday, either.
I really dont like sun bears, zebras or chimpanzees. I dont know what it is about them but they are just to boring for me. Same for flamingos, except james flamingo.
They have amazing colours, on beak and feathers. But when it comes to how they react and interact, they are as boring as other flamingos.
Rather a sweeping statement. Flamingo social, breeding and feeding behaviour is all endlessly fascinating. All have 'amazing colours'.
I must say i understand what you mean. But everytime in a zoo the flamingos mostly just stand there. Sometimes they will run or something, and the feeding behaviour is indeed amazing. To bad ive never seen it. And some flamingos have better colours than others. Most are plain white/pink, while others have more red mixed in between.
You remind me of my father, looking at a group of flamingos and commenting 'Don't fight much, do they?'.
Haha, all the more for me! I appreciate that everybody has different preferences . . . some of the animals I don’t particularly enjoy are also some of the most popular. Although, boring is definitely the last word I would use to describe a full on, skin stretching, growling, teeth baring scrap between two of my favourites!
I find kangaroos, wallabies and some other Australian animals boring. Small carnivores (except Genets and Civets) are boring to me too. Also bears if they're sleeping. Insect zoos and butterfly aviaries bore me as well.
Grottoes, or enclosures similarly outdated by about 50+ years. Whatever species they hold they just spoil my visit, and I have to walk on by. Otherwise unless I'm strapped for time or only have a day in a Bronx-sized zoo I try to appreciate everything at least a little. The only exceptions might be in aviaries or reptile houses where I don't usually watch something small+drab longer than 20 seconds unless it's doing something interesting. (for a different reason, as an arachnophobe I'll happily ignore such large invertebrates as tarantulas in the same building. No thanks!)
The first things I go for at a zoo are the birds, particularly the little ones, and I can spend 90% of a visit at Brookfield in the bird houses. I am most apt to skip over lions, tigers, zebras and common hoofstock and dolphins. I like to visit the various small critters more. I rarely miss the monkeys, as even though I am not that interested in them they're always entertaining and doing something. But birds are my thing. Free flight aviaries whether for exotics or domestic budgies are what I like most at a zoo. Second priority are any other indoor complexes/tropical halls.
I'm always amazed at how many Zoochatters find chimpaznee boring. I fail to see what's boring about an animal that is second only to our species in intelligence, has one of the most complex hierachies in the animal kingdom - which is heavily based on politics, family support and skill, as oppose to brute strength or physical prowess (which count for little). A female can show the most tender, loving care to her infant one minute and brutally kill a rival's newborn the next, a practice which new mothers employ various strategies to protect against. Males are essentially elected to the postition of power, but can be just as quickly overthrown, not to mention the more superficial appeal of a charismatic, acrobatic, semi aboreal primate who's sense of humour and range of facial expressions are almost fully relatable to our society. Sounds a pretty intriguing species to me.
The problem for me is that I really dislike humans and there are just too many physical similarities.
Best reply ever in this thread I dislike when people feel disgusted because other people dislike animals that they like And certainly James's flamingos have more colorful bills than any other species, no other have intense yellow! So I understand perfectly the point of view of Canihelpyou? On other side. Surprised me a bit to see that many zoochatters are affraid of spiders/snakes/bats etc. These animal phobia are common in "average people" but I tought that the proportion would be much smaller between Zoochatters Of course I enjoy with all these critters as well as with cockroaches, rodents or any other kind of animal
I've always been afraid of snakes and my fear was increased when I lived with my in-laws in rural north-east Thailand and on a couple of occasions found them in our home.
