That Zoo Animal Looks So Sad!

Anyone else tired of people saying this? I wrote this post to show how animals will look sad...regardless of where they are.

Sad zoo animals

 

Finally! Thank you for posting that! I'm tired as well of people saying zoo animals are depressed based on one picture or a quick visit! Some articles have valid points but many of just making judgments!

~Thylo

 

Thanks ThylacineAlive. I don't think there's too many situations were you can determine an animal's mood from the 'expression' on their face.

 

Thank you for posting that (and introducing me to the interesting looking site).

 

Exactly this. I am so tired of hearing this; my dogs often look sad and they are far from being sad!

 

Hey Buggle, just out of curiosity, what species of genet did you keep as a pet?

~Thylo

 

I don't think anyone knows, he could be a mix. He was sold as a 'small spotted genet' but when I type that into the image search I see animals that are larger than he is. I think the subspecies of these animals are not that well understood.

 

Oh okay. Do you still have him? If so, could you post a photo on here, someone is bound to know exactly what he is whether he's a hybrid or a smaller subspecies. And I always found genets to be small so if he's smaller than regular genets then he must be really small!

~Thylo

 

I like this, but I wish you would considering changing one thing. You have a photo of what appears to be a macaque (Celebes Crested Macaque perhaps?) with a caption that talks about chimps. Could you use "primate" or "monkey" instead of "chimp"?

By the way, ZooNews Digest posted a link to this on Facebook yesterday.

 

Thanks, I thought that was a baboon at first. I figured that might be confusing, I really wanted to use that picture (I can only use the creative commons pics) but I wasn't sure if macaques also 'smile' when they're agitated. Is that true? Thanks for telling me!

 

Yes I do, I have a video, would that be better?

 

I personally won't be able to identify it but I suggested a photo because you could post it into the "To Be Identified Gallery" and someone would probably be able to identify it.

~Thylo

 

Oh OK, I'll do that.

 

Sorry, but I can't help you with the behavior questions. But since chimps and macaques are both primates, you could say "primate" and it would match both the photo and the behavior, even if the photo doesn't match the behavior.

 

I see you updated the post. It looks good.

I knew something about that photo looked familiar. While I don't have any reason to believe it's the same individual macaque, there is a fascinating story from 2011 about a wild macaque that picked up a camera and took self-portraits. When I first read about it, there was a dispute about copyright. Several sites published the photos claiming they were public domain since no human took them. The guy who owned the camera disagreed. I think the guy who owns the camera should own the copyright, but I don't know how/if this was resolved.

Read about it here:

Black macaque takes self-portrait: Monkey borrows photographer's camera | Mail Online

Those Smiling Monkey Pictures Are Likely Public Domain

I hope this doesn't take the thread too far off-topic. But since you mentioned how you really wanted to use the photo, I thought you might be interested.

 

Thanks that is interesting, and your website is also great.

 

Dolphins are cursed with a face that looks happy however unhappy they may be!

 

At least dogs have explained their sadness
Sad Dog Diary - Viral Viral Videos

 

I prefer his True Facts videos but the Sad Diaries are alright, too.

~Thylo

 

Congrats Buggle! My local zoo's AAZK (American Association of Zookeepers) posted your article on their Facebook! It's a well-written article, and I too am tired of hearing "The animal is so sad in this cage! Zoos are wrong!" If you don't enjoy zoos, why'd you visit? I sometimes think that it's easier to understand people over animals in some cases...
Zooplantman- Have you seen the cat rendition of that?