What makes an animal interesting to you?

If you have any extras I'm open.

 

For Schrödinger's cat, the observer has an LD50 too. It is1

 

Its interesting isn't it- grace and beauty certainly plays an important part. Out of the British Deer, Fallow have always been my favourite species,for no conscious reason, but their gracefulness must play a role there- the same with Blackbuck among Antelope...

 

I think you might have a hard time explaining/showing physical differences of Tapanuli Orangutans from the main Sumatran population. I am not convinced they are a genuinely seperate species anyway, whatever some scientists may infer- there already seem to be disagreements about their true status.

 

I think this discussion is missing a lot of factors. What about sound? Part of the attraction with songbirds, parrots, gibbons, otters etc. Colour? Boelen's pythons, cardinal tetras, glossy starlings and so on. Sheer size? Bull elephants, gaur, reticulated pythons, Komodo dragons and the like. Finally there is the Hitchcock factor - pure scariness: it's very subjective but I reckon that tigers, and perhaps jaguars, have it more than lions for most zoo visitors, so do sharks, moray eels and eagles.

 

Except songbirds are not especially popular with crowds, the collections at London etc dropped when siezures of imports stopped, and at least in the UK, bird gardens seem biased toward nonpasserines. And do people stand and look at cardinal tetras? They are usually dither fishes, sharing with something like discus or angelfishes.

 

I was really writing about myself (noting the title of this thread): although I don't think I'm alone, as I said about the Hitchcock factor.

 

Ah ok. But the inclusion of some of the animals seemed odd, alongside others that (as you noted) are popular with collections and general puublic.

Yr list reminded me of the one in the Naked Ape ie. the sound of parrots is obviously speech, which in that case is anthropomorphism. The Hitchcock factor reminds me of the bit about our fear/fascination with snakes. Some people are touchy about this, but awe is why sharks, snakes etc are popular. People might be disnterested in a fish till you tell them its a piranha, so its partly learned, but also innate. People will stare at fish with big teeth, because we associate teeth with predators and threat gestures. Now how many popular images of zoo primates show them yawning? I noticed people like to see great apes and baboons showing their teeth.

 

I've always liked elephants due to their size, unusual appearance, intelligence, and social structure. Rhinos and hippos are intriguing for much of the same reasons. I find big cats to be gorgeous and I'm always amused when I see them act like house cats. I also really like hoofstock, although I can't really pinpoint why I do. The only exhibits I skip over in zoos are the farmyard areas. I'm also less likely to stay in areas exhibiting most North American species (even hoofstock) native to the continental USA as I've seen many of them in the wild. I do make an exception for predators though.