What animal looks different in real life to what you expected?

I'd always imagined okapi and Indian rhinoceros as being slightly smaller than they actually are, and pictures don't do any justice to how truly massive gaur are. Tiger salamanders always are bigger than I'd imagine, but other species of mole salamander tend to be smaller than I'd imagine.

Also as someone who dabbles in osteology some animals skeletons and skulls are so bizarre. Camel skulls especially look like they belong to some unholy Eldritch Abomination.
 
Ursus said:
The river dolphin in Rio Negro in Zoo Duisburg. During my visit last years summer I had a lot of high hopes for this encounter, I'm not dissapointed with it, but I did imagined it to be a much larger animal. Later that year (november) I visited AquaZoo Friesland and got to encounter absolutely massive Nile crocodiles, I imagined them way smaller, but those things were absolutely massive.
Click to expand...

Ha, I'm the opposite - I thought Baby would be smaller than he is...
 
Yesterday at Zie-Zoo in Volkel, the Netherlands I saw my first living specimen of the American black bear (Ursus americanus). I was surpised at how large this animal was. Admittedly the animal I saw was male, but from seeing American black bears on documentaries and in photographs I always thought it was bit smaller of a bear species, and it turned out the be a fair bit larger than I expected. In fact the male I saw was pretty close in size to some of the Eurasian brown bears I've seen. He was quite an impressive animal, and surprisingly agile despite his size.

Also at Zie-Zoo I saw the ring-tailed vontsira or ring-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans) for the first time. For some reason based on photographs I had expected this species to be larger and, for lack of a better word, thicker than the animal I saw turned out to be.

Finally, not having seen dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula) for some time and now having seen them again at Zie-Zoo I was kind of surprised at just how tiny they really are, compared to the other herpestics (meerkats, banded mongoose and yellow mongoose) that were kept nearby.
 
I always imagined Black Crakes to be the size of a chicken. I saw one recently at Henry Vilas, and imagine my surprise when it was no bigger than a Mourning Dove!

Even though I see Common Ravens several times a year in both captivity and the wild, I am always amazed by their size compared to crows.
 
KevinB said:
Yesterday at Zie-Zoo in Volkel, the Netherlands I saw my first living specimen of the American black bear (Ursus americanus). I was surpised at how large this animal was. Admittedly the animal I saw was male, but from seeing American black bears on documentaries and in photographs I always thought it was bit smaller of a bear species, and it turned out the be a fair bit larger than I expected. In fact the male I saw was pretty close in size to some of the Eurasian brown bears I've seen. He was quite an impressive animal, and surprisingly agile despite his size.

Also at Zie-Zoo I saw the ring-tailed vontsira or ring-tailed mongoose (Galidia elegans) for the first time. For some reason based on photographs I had expected this species to be larger and, for lack of a better word, thicker than the animal I saw turned out to be.

Finally, not having seen dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula) for some time and now having seen them again at Zie-Zoo I was kind of surprised at just how tiny they really are, compared to the other herpestics (meerkats, banded mongoose and yellow mongoose) that were kept nearby.
Click to expand...
I've seen black bears in the wild and in captivity and they are pretty good sized. It is surprising how agile and fast they are as well. Stupid tourists in national parks sometimes figure that out the hard way.
 
I saw some Lake Titicaca frogs for the first time a few days ago, and I was amazed by how tiny they were! I expected them to be around the size of African Clawed Frogs, the they were the size of house flies!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JVM
birdsandbats said:
I saw some Lake Titicaca frogs for the first time a few days ago, and I was amazed by how tiny they were! I expected them to be around the size of African Clawed Frogs, the they were the size of house flies!
Click to expand...
You must have enormous house flies in Wisconsin!!

But seriously, if they were tiny they would be froglets and not adults... or maybe they actually were house flies.
 
I thought that the feather tail gliders at Frankfurt would be much bigger than they were...
 
A bit of an inverse to the ‘bigger in the wild’ thesis, I spent my summer volunteering with large herbivores in the Fynbos region of South Africa, where the nutrients in the plants aren’t as high as in other regions. Of course it was an amazing experience but I found myself the tiniest bit underwhelmed that the elephants, giraffes, and rhinos weren’t the size I expected them to be

Imagine my amazement a few weeks later on a visit to BioParc Valencia, witnessing the absolute giants they have there
 
I once thought that the Great Hornbill was about the size of a NZ Pigeon. I was shocked when I saw the one at Noumea Zoo in 2011; it looked big enough to be able to eat a NZ Pigeon!
Also, a photo of a Kagu that I saw in an old book was composed in a way which made me think that the Kagu is about the size of a Eurasian Blackbird. So, I was also suprised to learn that the Kagu is the size of the hen of a large chicken breed, at the same zoo.

I also remember thinking that Spotless Crakes were the size of chickens, because of a stamp which featured a painting of a very round-looking one incubating its eggs. I still haven't seen one yet, but I was surprised to learn that they are the birds that are Eurasian Blackbird-sized.
 
Last edited:
The tawny frogmouth. I thought it would be maybe the size of a screech owl. It was about the size of a medium sized owl, at least.
 
Moose are a surprisingly large species. The females look like horses when you first see them and the males are even bigger. I've only seen the smallest North American subspecies so I'm sure I'd be impressed if I saw a Yukon moose.
 
For me, the Aardvark definitely comes to mind. I was familiar with the animal, but when I saw one for the first time in person at the Henry Doorly Zoo back in 2017, I was thrown off by how big they were!

Same thing with the massive Nile Softshell Turtles they have in the Lied Jungle. Actually, add their Arapaima to the list as well. I kind of knew those things can get big, but wow.

On the other side of the spectrum, bats in general (except maybe fruit bats). They seem noticeably bigger in pictures (even with hands for reference) then they do in real life (so imagine my shock when I spend several minutes looking for Vampire bats at the NC Zoo's desert exhibit only to see they were hiding in plain sight).
 
I recall seeing a snow leopard at the Bronx Zoo when I was six and being surprised at how small it was, comparing its size to that of a couch cushion. This was an obvious exaggeration made by my young self, but they are somewhat smaller than what many people might expect with a big cat, and they are indeed the smallest member of the Panthera genus.
On a related topic to the above, prior to seeing one in the flesh and only knowing of them from photographs in books, my young self assumed that a red panda was about as big as a “real panda” which is of course a bear.
On a visit to the Toledo Zoo last year, I remember seeing both a dingo and an Andean bear up close for the first time and both caniforms were smaller than I expected.
When my mom saw a spotted hyena for the first time, she said it was a lot bigger than what she would’ve thought.
 
elefante said:
Moose are a surprisingly large species. The females look like horses when you first see them and the males are even bigger. I've only seen the smallest North American subspecies so I'm sure I'd be impressed if I saw a Yukon moose.
Click to expand...

Agreed, that one surprised me too. Horses on stilts is about right I think.

One that comes to mind for me was seeing the polar bear at Point Defiance up close, enormous animal!
 
I recently saw the pair of pottos at ZSL when I was in London and was suprised at how large and robust they are. Needless to say I was really captivated by seeing this species for the first time and I was especially lucky because both individuals were very active that day.

Prior to seeing them in the flesh I had only seen images in books of the potto and I suppose I had always assumed that it was an animal of the size of other Lorisidae species. In fact to be honest I didn't really know anything in great detail about these animals apart from having a vague idea of distribution and some scant information about their relation to other primates cladistically speaking.

However, recently I've been enjoying reading up more about Perodicticus potto in various science papers and sites and about their ecology and behaviour in the wild and captivity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JVM
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top