What makes you different from other Zoochatters

Thats okay @Onychorhynchus coronatus, its just what I use, but it becomes a lot more useful in my opinion for animals that don't have common names. It doesn't have to be annoying, just note that that's what is unique about me, and you really can't change that.

 

I believe that it’s okay for a zoo to exist without a noble purpose as long as the animal is taken well care of.

I don’t get mad over unnatural enclosures (such as the Asahiyama zoo or Columbus zoo’s albeit I still have problems with the latter over ideological reasons) as long as the animals can display natural behaviors and the safety isn’t compromised.

Prohibition of the “nasty” wildlife trade is shortsighted in my opinion.

 

I was born with Aspergers as most of you know.. nuff said.

 

Well this thread was set up for you to express yourself, I did say that you could pick anything

 

A lot of us are autistic

 

I can tell you a whole lot more about me but you will be here for a while

 

Fire away

 

What would you like to know?

 

It could be anything, your experiences or what you really wish that people knew about Aspergers’

 

Ok here goes! Grab the popcorn and charge your phone!

Being born with Aspergers it has opened my world to a lot of unusual things. Most of my friends are terrified of animals and I’m the type of kid to run out of class to catch any animal that I see and they are used to it. Huntsman spiders, For example are commonly the size of a human hand and I still pick them up. I’m not crazy or stupid. It gives me a buzz that nothing else will ever do. It also helps with my depression and anxiety and it can be debilitating when depression comes over me. I shut down and don’t want to speak to anyone, I will walk for hours just to be around nature and away from my own kind. There is a reason I enjoy animals more then people. At least animals give you a warning before they try to attack you.

If I was placed in a room with a 10ft king cobra or my ex, I would take the cobra any day of the week. You learn things from animals that no person can ever do.

If there is one thing I can pass on to other people with Aspergers it’s always try to your best and pass on different techniques and always live your best life, you only have one.

 

@TeaLovingDave we are all people, know matter the skin colour or difficulties we have in life. It’s especially funny when I’m behind a large group of people in school and my social anxiety hits, I call out loudly “Check out the size of that huntsman Spider” and they freak the hell out “WHERE IS IT l!!!” And I reply with “on the pole back there” no more people in the way. It’s fool proof!!

 

Quite true! He should change his PP to a can of beer!

 

Cheeky sod! I'm a man of depth and substance. And terrible jokes...

On the subject of being on the spectrum I personally suffer from Dyspraxia, and therefore have certain autistic traits. I've discussed getting tested properly with my doctor in the recent(ish) past but due to a long waiting list and the fact it doesn't affect most of my day to day life then I've give up on getting an actual diagnosis for the time being.

 

Well as you are probably aware, the first one is something I feel quite differently about but anyway enough said on that.

I'm not really obsessed over naturalistic enclosures either, I mean as long as it suits the animals needs and allows them to display natural behaviours and to breed etc then I don't see any major issue there.

Yes, the wildlife trade is complicated I agree and there are pro's and cons to it but you have to understand that there are so many negatives that often people become quite damning on the issue without recognising the positives.

 

Not autistic or aspergic or anything like that but I know there are many people within the field of biology / science that are on that spectrum and thats ok. Cognitive diversity within any field is brilliant and should be encouraged.

I myself am dyslexic so I suppose that would be something that is worth mentioning and that people often find suprising. The irony is that I'm a high functioning dyslexic and have developed some strong coping strategies so I don't have an issue with reading and am in fact an avid reader of pretty much everything and "well read".

My weakness comes down to some dyscaculia with mathematics / numbers ( and consequently some minor difficulties with time management) which is definitely an issue in some areas of life and writing things by hand which is really very difficult for me as my handwriting is incredibly bad.

Some other issues are when I am very stressed the condition comes on with a vengance for example with high background noise levels which stress me out, sometimes stuttering or forgetting words under stress, printed text suddenly looking like Egyptian hieroglyphs or moving around like a fish in an aquarium when stressed etc.

Thankfully, we live in the 21st century now though and using a computer certainly helps with writing a lot and there are all sorts of other coping strategies that I practice which help.

 

I’m so glad you said that TLD, as in my experience Asperger’s/High Functioning Autism people are as different from each other as Neurotypical people are from each other. I’m somewhere on the spectrum, although never formally diagnosed.
What makes me different from many other Zoochatters?
*Older than many, and fairly set in my ways/opinionated
*Possibly keep more birds than most

 

Probably the fact that I actually don't go to zoos or anything wildlife-related very often, usually once a year as a birthday present, or twice if my family visits a place where it's a major attraction and my parents decide to pass by.