What's something you heard at a zoo or aquarium from another guest that irritated you?

I kind of ranted about some things I've heard from guests at the zoo I volunteered at, so I wanted to hear some stories from other zoo-goers/ workers. You can include things like people mixing up species, asking dumb questions, people claiming they can fight and win against certain animals, or other ridiculous things you heard during a visit. Some examples I witnessed at my zoo.

People in the reptile house bragging about chopping up snakes on sight. One lady, during my shift, shared a picture of a copperhead coiled in some leaves near her house, using its camouflage to hide. She claimed it was ready to attack and went on to say she killed it. Also, people teaching their kids about snakes using the terms good and bad. Something about hearing "that's a bad snake" just rubs me the wrong way. For a second forget the fact you slaughter a legless animal smaller than you with pride and enjoy the many animals you'll seldom see.

A lady in the African section near the large sign that said "African Plains", while in front of the elephant exhibit with the sign saying "African elephant," asking if these were Indian elephants.

The Komodo dragon being mistaken for an alligator by a grown woman.

This didn't irritate me, but more so caught me off guard. A guest shocked when she read that lemurs are from Madagascar. My co-volunteer with me was just as shocked about the guest's lemur range discovery.

A guest assuming the zoo drugs the animals because the lions were sleeping.

And the common "look at the monkeys" while at an ape exhibit. There's many more, but I don't want to make this post as big as my rant in the other thread. Feel free to share as many ridiculous things that you can think of.

 

Prairie dogs, mongooses, squirrels otters and pole cats exist. Some random Mom, tHiS iS A MeERcaT

 

I one heard a Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur called a lizard.

 

according to people ive heard:
an octopus is a squid
moray eels are sea snakes
orangutans are monkeys
flounders are stingrays
lionfish are stonefish
water python is an eel
and any large, silvery fish is immediately a tuna

 

how

 

When I visited the Roscommon Zoo in Michigan last year one of the owners was completely delusional about how good his zoo was. This conversation wasn't with me, but with another guest. He and the guest essentially described all major zoos as "concrete jungles" and his zoo was much more natural. Clearly he forgot about some of the monkey cages at his zoo.

In all honesty, the zoo wasn't all that terrible, nothing really good though either. Just those comments and a few about the AZA I overheard irritated me.

 

I can actually see how people can get confused with these three.

 

Yeesh, I used to go there every single year of my life since I was born. I loved it as a kid. Then last year I noticed stuff like a stereotyping lynx, fighting horses, and a donkey with severely overgrown hooves. I decided not to go back for the first time in my life this year. Probably a good thing. It is worth noting that it used to have different owners and was called the Cindy Lou Zoo, so maybe they weren't nutjobs when I was a kid? (Also it was mostly domestic animals back then. The new owners brought in the tigers and kangaroos and stuff to make it more of a "real" zoo.) Either way its not the same and the Saginaw Children's Zoo is the new tradition.

 

Yeah, I can see how people make these mistakes, but it's still annoying

 

The almost constant "monkey" statements for chimps and other apes is one that I'm sure we've all heard and rolled our eyes at.

I was visiting Ocean Park with an ex-coworker who was extremely insistent that the alligator gars were alligators because "the sign said so". Dumbass.

Not in a zoo, but a French family in Sri Lanka were screaming about the "crocodile" on the bank of a lake. It was a water monitor, and those things were everywhere.

 

I heard somebody call a gaboon viper a king cobra, spectacled bear called a grizzly bear, and this one woman complained about the penguins not being in the cold when she was literally right in front of the info wall. All at my home zoo.

 

St Louis Zoo March 17, 2018: orangutan exhibit, a family is there. A boy said to his sibling in a stroller "see, monkey" at an orangutan sleeping by the glass. I'd be a fool to think I'm the first Zoochatter to hear or mention a layperson refer to an ape as a monkey, but of course it gets on my nerves.

Brookfield Zoo October, 2019: class trip, my group and I are at the African wild dog exhibit. A family nearby referred to them as hyenas. (passive aggressive pseudo-revenge time!) One of my friends said aloud (but not to the family) "oh boy, I love these Africa hunting dogs." I responded to her with "me too, especially their rounded ears."

 

I like the response for the wild dogs. I don't understand how they're confused for hyenas. To me, wild dogs look more like a German shepherd with Mickey ears and paint splashed on them. Hyenas look like large dogs of some sort with tan fur with dots scattered on them and pointed ears. I don't get the confusion.

 

I am still furious at the woman who called an Indian rhino a moose, and my mother getting mad at me for trying to politely correct her.

 

I hate it If somewone Sees a Tiger in a Zoo and says to his childrens, Look Theres a Lion. Or Another example some pepople say this is an beaver but IT was an eurasian River Otter or some pepople say Look at this Eagle but IT was an eurasian Griffin Vulture instead. If somewone says that at a Zoo i allways have to correct Them.

 

Do we really need another

Things people do that irritate you when you go to the zoo? #2

to bitch about how stupid zoo visitors can be? Newsflash: people ARE stupid. This also includes some of the users who gossip here safely in a small closed virtual group. Heck, it even includes myself if I talk about things I've no clue about. I'm pretty sure that somewhere on the internet, car mechanics joke about your cluelessness in the garage, craftspersons about your DIY attempts and chefs about your inability to chop an onion properly without hurting yourself (...) while historians shake their heads in disbelief about the stupid things they heard you say at the museum and MD / DVMs make fun about your lack of medical knowledge in their little pockets of the internet. Etc. Etc.

If you want to change the world for the better and fight back stupidity, do it in the real world: teach, not preach. Lead by example. Better yourself. Have the guts to correct, educate and stand in for the truth in real life, without looking down on others.

 

On the topic of African Wild Dog stories.

April 2019 and I’m at Weribee zoos African Wild Dog enclosure, despite the signs a person called them a hyena, that wasn’t what bothered me....

He said this to his son that he was holding (about 2-3 years old). (You see this, Hyena, if you fall in with it, it will eat you alive and strip you to the bone)

I was appalled when I heard this.

 

Some people aren’t in a position to do correct others they may be not an adult etc.

You do have a point, don’t just complain, act, but what can we do during lockdown?, if anything this reminds us of the work that is needed to be done when normality ensues.

I do think you are being unnecessarily harsh and blunt but I respect your stance.

 

Some adults don't even listen to other adults, while being a teenager does not mean that you won't get their attention if you play to your strengths => Greta Thunberg.

Maybe discuss and establish together new strategies how you as an individual and as a collective of zoo nerds can deal with such idiots efficiently and productively?

I disagree; I actually damped my original reply. But hey, you know what they say about Germans =>
Non-Germans: too polite to be honest.
Germans: too honest to be polite.

 

I have so many of the above mentioned mistakes made by zoo patrons even where there is excellent signage. Ignorance can be forgiven I suppose but what really amazes me is when a docent or other patron corrects someone and they double down on stupid. This happens a lot with the kids. An example is when they refer to a Leopard as a Tiger or a Cheetah and when the are corrected proceed to insist their original assumption was correct. My 2nd pet peeve is people that make a trip to a zoo, pay admission, bring their kids and proceed to get on the soapbox on the shortcomings of perfectly adequate exhibits and bemoan how the animals look “unhappy”.