West Midland Safari and Leisure Park Woman closes car window on giraffes head.

Investigation underway after window shatters on giraffe's head at safari park

Just seen this article. Shocking behaviour by the visitor. I wonder if it’s time to insist on closed windows in the park to stop this kind of thing?

 

I've often thought the way feeding is encouraged at WMSP was potentially dangerous- but I was thinking more in terms of animals with horns putting their heads in a car and inadvertantly injuring an occupant, rather than this....

 

I go twice a year and the things you see people doing is... eye-opening... (I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to open my window in the lion enclosure, for example).

The park does have a lot of guidelines in place, including not letting an animal put its head inside the vehicle, but it doesn't stop people, nor does it stop the animals.

 

I was told by a staff member at Woburn that they once had to run to the rescue when a family got out of the car in the bear enclosure with a picnic blanket and basket and started setting up for lunch. People have no common sense! I’ve never thought of the animals being hurt though.

 

The animals at WMSP are conditioned by the public feeding to put their heads into the cars. they walk from car to car checking out whose got food. You can't really blame the visitors if they have been encouraged to feed them and so open their windows to do so and the animals poke their heads in. Only a 'no feeding' policy would stop all that and maybe alleviate the traffic jams at peak periods in some of the reserves too.

 

No way this is real. That is crazy!

 

No idea how long ago it was but it was indeed real. Apparently people getting out of their cars is not uncommon but this was the worst incident he’d seen.

 

I can not comprehend how stupid some people are.

 

My god these visitors are ******.

 

The fun thing, is that as long as you stay inside, even with an open window you are identified as car. In Africa, completely open Land cruisers full of tourists are very common in national parks and they will come within a few meters of lions...

 

Thankfully no injuries!

 

On the t.v. show about Longleat safari park ( Animal Park ) a ranger told the presenters that a family got out of their car in the Tiger enclosure because they couldn't see any animals and presumed it was a picnic area.

 

I can and its more not stupidity as it is ignorance and modern life

First up a lot of people have no interaction with the wild world. They live in a house, they drive to work, they work in an office or factory or such and then they go home. They might see the odd rabbit or even a deer on the roadside if they have to go through the countryside; but if they are on main roads and urban areas chances are they might see a fox if they are lucky (and the vast majority will be dead by the roadside).

They might own a dog or a cat or a budgie, but otherwise life has no reason for them to ever interact with actual wild animals. If they are urban they might have a local park which might have squirrels; most of these will be pretty tame and used to people and are also of almost no actual threat.



So these people grow up with basically no exposure, interaction nor life skills or awareness with regard to wildlife.

So when they are at a zoo the animals are in cages and they've no reason to think that they are actually dangerous. I mean no one would like people drive a car through actual "man eating lion" enclosures would they. They simply don't respect the real dangers, speed and power of animals because life has never introduced them to it. Lions and big cats in particular might even seem safer because they are WAY smaller than bulls or horses (which they might have had some interaction with or at least been taught to be weary of when in fields).


I would say in the UK its got potential to actually be worse than some other countries as even if you live in the countryside there's basically nothing wild that is a threat to people. Deer or an irate badger are what you could fear but both are vastly more likely to run away than stay and fight unless you happen to stumble on a badger den.
So by and large there's no need to even have a basic awareness of animal threat. If you go on a walk mostly all you have to remember is to keep to the path; shut gates and don't walk into the cow field if you've got your dog with you.

 

Believe me, you have no idea! The stories I could tell...

Don't forget its also a sense of entitlement, the "Ive paid my money, I'll do what I want" mindset.

Ive come to vehemently avoid visiting anywhere over the Easter holidays. This behaviour seems to be more prevalent over this period.

 

I would honestly be truly shocked by anyone who didn’t perceive a lion or a tiger to be a dangerous animal.

 

There's also that special kind of stupid (that we can all suffer from) where a person becomes unsure of their environment and it manifests in bravado to mask their insecurity. Which can more than make someone who is already acting stupidly start to defend their actions, esp if they are with family/friends.

In the wild sure, though there will always be a few who even in the wild, are still unable to comprehend the danger.

In a captive zoo well, you'd not really have actually dangerous animals would they. They are captive, they are raised in captivity. So sure they might not be house-trained but they'd not really kill you would they. Asides all they do is spend ALL day laying there being sleepy.


Thankfully we are talking about the extremer ends of human behaviour which are, thankfully rarer. Though they do shock and do stick in the mind far more than the far larger number of people who don't cause any issues (or who are the ones who laugh it off when their windscreen wipers are pulled off by the monkey).

 

Captive big cats are definitely dangerous. There have been keepers killed by animals that they know well because a gate failed. They would 100% kill a strange visitor who decided to leave their car.

 

Definitely not a perception I’ve ever come across.

 

You can't educate a lettuce...