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

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by Jaguar, 20 Jul 2008.

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  1. JigerofLemuria

    JigerofLemuria Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    You make good points. Even though I don't work at Barcelona Zoo (or any other one I visit, for that matter! ;) ), I often like to inform the public about the animals, and most of the times, the kids are often MUCH more interested in what the zoo has to offer than their parents or teachers, who are usually neutral towards the subject or "sad that they're in cages..."
    This is why I like working with kids more than adults sometimes; their minds aren't fogged up by nonsense social norms and bad reporting!
     
  2. BeakerUK

    BeakerUK Well-Known Member

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    As a teacher (who takes children on zoo trips) I am really sorry to hear this, and sorry to all on behalf of my profession for teachers who are not engaged, enthusiastic etc on zoo trips with their pupils. My trips have always been huge successes, I am sure partly thanks to my enthusiasm prior to and during the trip. This is in contrast with the classes of other teachers who have been on my trips - they enjoy the trip but definitely don't get as much out of it as my classes do. I will never forget the rough, tough boy who couldn't contain his excitement about seeing actual live Siamangs (even though I constantly had to remind him they had "throat sacs" not "fruit sacs"!)
     
  3. TheGerenuk

    TheGerenuk Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Most of my hates are like everyone else's (tapping on glass, flash photography, loud children, etc.), but what annoys me the most is incorrect signage and whenever someone says one animal is another animal. Examples would include birds of paradise being called parrots, tapirs being called young elephants, and, to a lesser extent, confusion between similar species (often heard in the form of confusing the three species of blue macaw).

    -:cool::cool:TheWalrus:cool::cool:
     
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  4. agnmeln

    agnmeln Well-Known Member

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    Always misbehaving children for me.
     
  5. Fallax

    Fallax Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    When people say 'oo those penguins need some ice' or when you visit in winter and people say 'the penguins must love it right now'. I have experienced this with Humboldt's...
     
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  6. agnmeln

    agnmeln Well-Known Member

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    Dumb things that people say: ‘look at the black bear cub’ about a fully grown ten year (plus) old sun bear.
     
    Last edited: 15 Jan 2018
  7. TheGerenuk

    TheGerenuk Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I get why some people, especially young children, think that all penguins like cold weather. But older people saying that about Humboldt, Magellanic and African penguins? That would be the dumbest thing I'd ever hear.

    -:cool::cool:TheWalrus:cool::cool:
     
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  8. JigerofLemuria

    JigerofLemuria Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I've heard lots of anti-zoo idiots defending their extremism with: "PENGUINS SHOULDN'T BE IN BARCELONA!!! IT'S TOO HOT FOR THEM!!!!"
    They're Humboldt's...
     
  9. FunkyGibbon

    FunkyGibbon Well-Known Member

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    You know that most people have no interest in or knowledge of zoology right? Most are probably not even aware there are separate species of penguin. Frankly a large section of the population could not give a working definition of the word 'species'.

    If this is where you set the bar for 'dumbest thing you'll hear' then you're in for a whole world of pain....
     
  10. JigerofLemuria

    JigerofLemuria Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Totally true. I've heard FAR worse from adults:
    - Calling any light-bodied bovine or cervid "Bambi" (f***ing hate that!)
    - Calling an otter a seal
    - Calling leopards tigers and vice versa
    - Calling an iguana a crocodile
    - Calling flamingos ducks and pelicans
    - Calling lemurs "rodents"
    - Calling a tapir an anteater
    And, the grand prize goes to...
    - Calling a Bactrian camel "horsie".
    All of these are real quotes.
     
  11. Swedish zoo man

    Swedish zoo man Well-Known Member

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    wen i was at kolmården zoo last year a famely wacked past me at the takin padok. one of them asckt wathe that animale was then the dad of the groupe said thath it was a wildebeest. a thath momet they wackt past the singne for it. com one
    my mome has also told me that one time wen i was litel i was angry at a man that he said that a goat was a sheep
     
  12. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Calling a Grizzly Bear a Lion...

    Or when a zoo sign says "Lions and Tigers would never meet in the wild." :rolleyes:
     
  13. Buldeo

    Buldeo Well-Known Member

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    There is some passionate debate about whether or not tigers are anywhere near Sasan Gir. I believe this is the first time the tiger census as included the region in their count.


    This is a new one to me: While catching up with San Francisco's new snow leopards the keeper, was explaining how the two are rotated in and out. One punter popped up with "Why don't you build her her own enclosure?!" Later the subject of names* came up and one woman called out "how dare you steal her identity, and change her name halfway through life!" At which point in time she put her kids back in the stroller and stormed off.

    * - SF has a policy(?) of changing new arrivals names -- at least publicly -- and auctioning off the chance to name/rename the animal in question. Keepers, however, have indicated that they continue using the original name.
     
  14. TheEthiopianWolf03

    TheEthiopianWolf03 Well-Known Member

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    Kids playing video games and missing out on the animals (Kids get distracted easily I don’t blame them, slightly annoying though)

    Nikko the white handed gibbon was called a monkey at first but then the person “corrected” to chimpanzee during one trip. On the same trip a family was imitating the chimpanzees which annoys me the most because the chimps came from certain situations (ownership, labs, etc)
     
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  15. SHAVINGTONZOO

    SHAVINGTONZOO Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Nah!

    "What's that Dad?"

    "I think it's a flamingo..."



    It was a binturong.
     
  16. JigerofLemuria

    JigerofLemuria Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    WOOOW!!!! That's... That's a new record right there, holy ****...
     
  17. Fallax

    Fallax Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Looking back, I think there was an utter horrific one but I can't remember it. I do remember elephant seals being fat slugs posed a while back.
     
  18. Fallax

    Fallax Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    If this is at Chester it must be noted that the binturongs have no signage. Many people are always shocked at how tiny the 'sun bears' are. They think the binturongs are sun bears...

    Once I went to see the sun bears but all I saw was a slepping binturong. I said to my friend, 'oh well that isn't a sun bear', some young girl then said 'yes it is, look at the sign!'. At least she read the sign unlike most people :/
     
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  19. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    At the Aquarium of the Pacific last week there was a family whose children would walk up to a tank, look at the animals, then kick the glass and move on. Thankfully, someone told them to stop just after I noticed it.

    ~Thylo
     
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  20. Batto

    Batto Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Visitor in front of the enclosure, with utter conviction: "This [insert live animal specimen] isn't real!"

    Today, I had my first of this kind of visitor at the "Welt der Gifte", though I've encountered them at other institutes. While I was calmly explaining that no, the snake was very much alive and that it makes no sense (at least to me) to display an artificial animal in a well-furbished tank, the European horned viper snapped at her behind the glass.

    That'll do snake; that'll do.
     
    Last edited: 28 Jan 2018
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