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

- To add to yours HuxleyPig- tall people who crowd the exhibit windows when there are children present. This especially holds true when the animal is right next to the glass and they don't let the kids in front until AFTER the animal is gone Same goes for any adult who monopolizes opportunities for kids to learn (okay if it's a slow day, otherwise let the kids go first!)

- Visitors who play the "I didn't know" card when you ask them to stop any of the annoying, before-mentioned behaviours.

- Other visitors who feel they deserve special treatment or are entitled to see a certain animal because they've travelled a long way, because they have zoo memberships/passes, or because they know "Rick" who worked at the zoo X years ago!

 

Amen to that!

 

Right my turn lol!

The main things i hate are when:

-People swear at the animals (disrespectful)

-Children Bang on glass or shout at animals (parents do nothing)

-During displays e.g birds of prey, some people scream and once i saw a man get up as the bird was flying low near him nearly hitting it. Thats mine

 

Rhetorically, why should the children have priorities over adults (who've usually paid considerably more for the privilege)?

Personally, I get annoyed when ill-mannered children rudely push in front of you, without an "excuse me", as if they've got some superior right or priority.

Well-mannered children, fine, I'll let them in. Rude ********, I stand my ground as a point of principle. Unfortunately. in my experience, the latter are in the majority.

 

The most interesting although annoying thing we saw was two young guys tapping the window of the out door gorilla enclosure trying to get one of the gorillas to look at them. The gorilla just ignored them and them suddenly lept to his feet ran to the window and beat his fists on it. The one guy had a giant sized drink, his hand shot up in the air and the drink went all over him. I am sure the gorilla knew what he was doing and what would happen and got some entertainment out of it. Hopefully that was a sticky lesson the guy learned .

 

I toooooootally agree with you.

 

One of the best experiences i have had at the zoo is when me and Rajang (orangutan) were sitting quitley in a corner (me behind glass!) and he was contented and trying to groom me through the window. Suddenly some kid barges through shoving a camera in mine and rajy's face. Bang! Rajang hits the glass and frightens the life out of the kid. It was so funny!

 

Here unfortunately in Mexico , there is alot of ignorance which cannot be excused by bad education. Somethings i hate to see in zoos are the following:

When people tap or bang the glass of an animals exhibit : here in the national zoo i once saw an old fellow bashing the glass of the Mandrill exhibit with his walking stick to try to get a reaction from the Mandrills and even encouraging his grandchildren to do the same with the leopards.

When ignorant people make huge errors in identifying a species or its natural habitat despite huge signs displaying information to the zoo going public: for example ive heard iguanas being called chameleons , toucans being called condors and orangutangs being called African Gorrillas , the Siamang gibbon a chimpanzee , even more maddening is when visitors dont manage to correctly identify species native to Mexico such as calling the Coyote a wolf , or the jaguar a leopard or the sloth a type of bear.


The usual stereotypical crap being spoken like "look at the big hairy monkey" , "he wants a bannana" ,"ooh aghh" , often i think the Apes are far more chivalrous and dignified then the human visitors. There is always a great mob of people around the ape cages in whichever zoo i visit , and i often find it amazing the peoples reaction to the apes and their thoughts that the apes are ignorant beasts instead of closely related cousins of our own species.

When people try to feed the animals , despite signs stating it is prohibited , i have never seen this happen in the zoos i visited in the UK or USA but here in Mexico its pretty common to see these things happen. Ive seen the spectacled bear enjoying an ice cream cone ,baboons eating nachos with cheese sauce and the tamarins and marmosets being thrown gelatine sweets.

Rudeness towards the staff is also very annoying to see , you can often see the general public shouting crude things to those who work in the zoo , especially if the female staff member happens to be attractive , it is despicable behaviour and is a great source of shame for the unfortunate member of staff and i often feel like throwing some of those ignorant adolescent males into a carnivorous animals enclosure.

Bored individuals who have no interest in the natrual world , wandering around absent mindedly and dragging equally bored familly members or girlfriends around with them, if they are not interested in zoos then why do they waste their time going.


I also hate the general human attitude that we ourselves are above animals , due to our ability to think rationally , our powers of speech and our use of language , we shouldnt consider ourselves above the natrual world but simply part of it.

 

very well said hehehehe

 

what i really hate is when visitors at the Ky fauna park pick up and harass the shinglebacks and blue tongues in the outdoor enclosure aswell as try to get a reaction out of the venomous snakes in the reptile house. the snakes end up injuring themselves.

something that i also hate is when visitors (locals who should know better) call the koala, "koala bear". aussies and other people should become more aquainted with their native wildlife.

 

i do the same thing. i find i nice place outside a popular exhibit to sit and eat my lunch and i wait to see what people say.

"look at the hyena" (was an african wild dog)

i also find it funny when people are talking to a large group and act like know it alls. making up things or misinforming the group.

reminds me of that bigpond ad about emporer nasi goreng

 

Like the original thread, I can't stand people that think all the animals are unhappy in their exhibits. Just because the enclousers are smaller than there natural environment doesn't mean they can't adapt and be happy.

 

Just go on deviantart, type in the name of a zoo and see how many titles of things like 'prisoner' etc come up.

 

People who don't read the signs and those who comment that an animal is "pacing, that isn't good" when they have only stood for 15 seconds!

 

I get annoyed when people say an animal looks sad and unhappy, and when wandering around zoos I, like others, listen out for other visitors misinforming their group with really silly stuff. It's quite funny, really.

 

I think part of it is people wearing rose tinted glasses when thinking about nature and how nice it would be to "get back to it" and then projecting that onto the animals, as they being closer to nature must more keenly be aware of the loss of the idyllic simple life that they lived. In most cases a idyllic lifestyle doesn't involve potentially starving to death during winter, but I don't suppose that is to important.

 

I too hate it when people paint all zoos with the same brush, that they're all prisons.

 

I just hate it when people at my local zoo call the young Parma wallaby's baby kangeroo's just because thier in the same enclosure. Most of the time they're standing right by the name plates on the fence.

 

On the other hand, many museums and galleries are actively trying to engage visitors in active discussion & debate , instead of the typical hushed whispers typical in these institutions, & today seen as totally unnecessary & even counter-productive by many administrators.If only zoo visitors could behave one-tenth as well as they do when visiting museums where inert exhibits are impossible to disturb and where good behaviour makes little difference at the end of the day.Today´s zoos are too comfortable for the visitor & lacking in natural calming architectonic elements.Visitors who make a long trek as they go around a zoo automatically have the edge taken off them, and settle down.There should be no automatic doors, walkways, etc.Public announcement tannoys and suchlike are incredibly negative also.Visitors will not tap on glass if there is none within reach- it is an excellent element in exhibits, but a secondary barrier of prickly plants is often advisable.Zoos which do not put on "shows" - (dolphin shows / animal feedings / bird-of-prey spectacles , etc) generally have far,far better behaved visitors, as they do not become stressed and cranky trying to follow a schedule and not miss anything.Offering sufficient refreshment & catering facilities with short queues also avoid frayed nerves and contribute to calmer & better-behaved visitors.Bottleneck exhibits should be avoided, and there should be plenty of alternative routes around the zoo.I have seen the best & worst in zoo visitors , but I firmly believe that the immense majority will make an effort to behave reasonably if all ambient factors conspire towards this.I have yet to see much bad behaviour in a zoo that is beautifully landscaped, with much birdsong and natural ambience.

 

lol. it was funny a couple of years ago a guy was feeding the chimps bananas at Taronga but when he turned around, the zookeeper was standing right in front of him!

sucked in!!!!