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

At West Mids Safari Park I once had a disagreement with (well known herpetologist) Mark O'Shea because he tried to show me up in front of a crowd by telling me Komodo dragons can only grow to two metres, then he followed this up by showing a graph stating they can grow to 3 metres... Which is what I'd just told him! He didn't look at me for the rest of the talk after that faux pas! :p
 
Crowthorne said:
I'm used to (but still immensely annoyed by) people making noises at the animals to get their attention, but the animals have heard it all before so they rarely if ever react. Yesterday was the first instance I've seen of someone using their phone to play the species' vocalisations at them, in this case the African Hunting Dogs. The man with the phone tried for ages, but thankfully the dogs paid him no attention and he went away. I'm just hoping this isn't the start of a worrying new trend...
Click to expand...
Is it bad that I can recite gibbon calls? I feel ashamed for conversing with the Cincinnati Gibbons....:oops:
 
Just a few weeks ago in Singapore Zoo, I saw a woman trying to bang the glasses of an enclosure of a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. I immediately told her not to disturb it, and surprisingly, she actually listened.
Also, don't get me started by the amount of bangings back in Berlin Zoo's Gorilla enclosure. I have no way to tell them not to.
 
Crowthorne said:
Yesterday was the first instance I've seen of someone using their phone to play the species' vocalisations at them, in this case the African Hunting Dogs. The man with the phone tried for ages, but thankfully the dogs paid him no attention and he went away. I'm just hoping this isn't the start of a worrying new trend...
Click to expand...

I mean, is it really a bad thing? Birdwatchers do it for ages in nature, when they try to lure some bird closer to them.
 
HOMIN96 said:
I mean, is it really a bad thing? Birdwatchers do it for ages in nature, when they try to lure some bird closer to them.
Click to expand...

It is bad if it is disturbing the animals when they are trying to sleep, eat, drink, or whatever else they are doing, people are also bad at animal calls.
 
Crowthorne said:
I'm used to (but still immensely annoyed by) people making noises at the animals to get their attention, but the animals have heard it all before so they rarely if ever react. Yesterday was the first instance I've seen of someone using their phone to play the species' vocalisations at them, in this case the African Hunting Dogs. The man with the phone tried for ages, but thankfully the dogs paid him no attention and he went away. I'm just hoping this isn't the start of a worrying new trend...
Click to expand...
I’m actually not annoyed by the vocalizations on a phone. I think it’s a unique way to provide some unofficial enrichment for some of the animals as long as you aren’t causing stress. Much better than the mouth clicks and whistles people use to try and get an animal’s attention. They’re not your dog, people!
 
Jena said:
I know this thread is old, but I want to comment because I have one example that really made me actually cry... so I was at the Turtle Back Zoo a while ago, (of course I am there a lot but this scene was a while ago), and I was at the Gray Wolf Exhibit, one of my favirotes at the zoo. And this kid started banging on the glass and SCREAMING at the wolves. And I tried telling him to be quiet the wolves have sensitive hearing, BUT I WAS THE ONE GETTING YELLED AT BY HIS MOTHER. His mother goes "excuse me that's my child your talking to!" Like okay lady if you are aware that is your child then make your child be quiet for peeps sake. This is a zoo where you can't bang on the windows or scream at the animals. And so that day I left crying cause I was upset that she yelled at me but not her child who was the one causing disturbance to the animals.
Click to expand...
Happened to me too, she threatened to throw me over the enclosure to the wild dogs at wildlife hq
 
Not exactly a zoo but I was near a creek in Victoria catching fish and a couple of women went up to our caravan and asked why our cockatiel was in a cage ( their cat was roaming free) and I said so your cat doesn’t try to eat her. One woman walked down and upended my bucket of fish and said “why don’t you move your arse down the creek away from us so we don’t have to look at your ugly face”. The next day it was Christmas Day and they were as happy as Larry, uuuuuhhhhh people these days!
 
Batto said:
Not really; Lycaon pictus is a canid, not a member of the Hyaenidae family.
Click to expand...
I think that he was making a joke, adding another misconception to the list he quoted. On the other hand, if he's serious, than yeah, that's a canid (hence the "dog").
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top