Things people do that irritate you when you go to the zoo?

Bank holidays, school holidays and even weekends!

 

I find it very annoying when people come up to me and start putting my animals down by saying things like "oh I hate lizards!" Why do they have to say it in my face instead of being polite and keeping it to themselves?

 

I cannot stand people. When I used to work at a pet store a lady belittled me for having pet snakes and lizards.

 

Well, man, the sources of the images are dubious; many lesser-quality zoos have the same cage structures and it's difficult to pick out a specific zoo, especially when they pin the blame on someone else! They certainly don't belong to Barcelona Zoo. Do you think that the Jane Goodall institute would approve of this zoo if they didn't have the appropriate installations?

 

I had some old lady come up to me and say that "the only good snake was a dead snake".She did'nt get a very nice response in return off me.

 

They usually don't know either. I've done adult- and kids-groups and you can do almost the same tour and questions for both of 'em

 

I would tell her "The only good idiot is a dead idiot... IDIOT!"

 

I did say something along those lines but I wouldn't post it on here though.

 

This is more funny than irritating but this guy at the zoo kept on saying "Bango" instead of "Bongo"

 

Could have something to do with his accent.

 

Just got a couple thoroughly attempting to read the map upside down. Also, the for tenth time, I heard an Okapi get mistaken for a duiker.

 

Even better, the only good dog is a dead dog.

In the United States, a dog's more likely going to kill you than a snake anyway

 

I can't tell you how many times I've heard people call tortoises 'turtles'.

 

Ok, I saw something about cigarette butts, and I have an AWFUL story. The state fair is well known in just about every state for attracting some of the lowest of the low in the area, and unfortunately, my state fair has a large tent filled with exotic wildlife - a cougar, a black bear, blue crabs, a group of young alligators, anything from the southeast US they could get their hands on (I think there's a bobcat, too). I have no idea where they come from, or where they go when the fair ends, but the black bear cage is DEFINITELY too small for the animal. Anyway, on the way out my younger brother literally had a cigarette put out on his arm by some stranger walking by.

I've seen worse happen to animals. At Clearwater Marine Aquarium, in the underwater viewing area for Winter and Hope, a bunch of little kids started banging on the glass as hard as they could. These kids literally thought it would attract attention, but it just caused Hope and Winter to swim into a back pool to get away from the noise.

At Shedd Aquarium I put up with small children calling everything "NEMO!" It's not Nemo, it's not even a clownfish, it doesn't even live in saltwater, it's a freaking piranha.

I've seen cigarette butts left on the ground. I recall watching someone just throw an empty bottle on the ground at SeaWorld Orlando once like five years ago. At another point at the Audubon Zoo I saw some kid have the audacity to throw crap at the elephants.

And that's not even the worst part. I've looked at the autopsies of cetaceans in zoos around North America, the guests are LITERALLY KILLING THESE ANIMALS. Nala died because people threw coins into her pool at Vancouver Aquarium. DOES THAT LOOK LIKE A FOUNTAIN TO YOU?! Same happened to a dolphin named Cassie at SeaWorld Orlando, she turned white because of zinc poisoning. Winnie, a killer whale at SeaWorld San Antonio, died after eating a bunch of crap on the bottom of the pool at Windsor Safari Park, and Nandu died in Sao Paulo because he ate foreign objects as well (he was an orca).

At Bronx Zoo in New York, I caught some GROWN PEOPLE trying to get a rattlesnake to attack them from behind the glass. Yeah, let's take the glass barrier out of the picture and see what happens in that scenario.

What annoys me the most is how people love to just bang on the glass, especially if there are kids and fish involved, because they want to SEE NEMO, and all it does is scare the crap out of the fish. Sound is a lot louder in water, just image you being in a pool and hearing somebody basically punch the glass underwater. I can't stand the disrespect that goes on in zoos and aquariums sometimes.

 

Just today, I was talking with 3 other keepers in front of some exhibits and a young man (probably mid-late teens) goes to one of the exhibits that held a frogmouth and said "I'd hate to live that miserable life". A little later he goes to another bird exhibit, this one containing a kestrel, reads the sign and says "built for speed but look at that tiny cage". Again, right in front of 4 keepers in uniform.

 

I feel like Zoos, Aquariums, etc. Shouldn't allow visitors in unless they pass an "I'm not a scumbag" test...

 

Personally I think that it would be better to have a few more keepers/volunteers active around the zoo during opening hours. Back that up with CCTV and have a strict policy that if people are identified not adhering to a verbal warning then they get chucked out. It doesn't have to be a harsh warning just a reminder/correction to behaviour mixed with the reasoning why.

Bad behaviour is normally reinforced when it comes with no punishment; and if they get a reward (eg the animal even just turning its head) then it will only reinforce it further.
You also get a bit of monkey-see-monkey-do going on. Even if its on the TV or media if people see others behaving a certain way they are bound to try it out as well.

Similarly most people who choose to pay and visit a zoo have some semblance of animal welfare in their minds (or at least one would like to think so) as a result informing them that their behaviour might be harmful should correct most.


Signs are all well and good but signs are things people can easily ignore or even not notice. Some might also miss interpret or consider that the sign only applies to "other people" and not to them.

 

So i heard someone on my radio say someone threw chewing tobacco into the kangaroo yard

 

Didn't someone drop their CHILD in the Pittsburgh Zoo African wild dog exhibit? It wasn't like at Cincinnati Zoo where the kid escaped, this child was literally killed by the wild dogs because the parent accidentally dropped them in.