Small Animals That Attract Non-ZooChat Attention

Coelacanth18 said:
Interesting; I've heard very little of this sentiment about reptiles and amphibians from visitors in US zoos. Most of the people who mill through reptile houses and past herp exhibits seem genuinely fascinated and intrigued by them, without malice or disgust. Maybe this is a geographic/cultural thing?
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That is pretty interesting that you mention this. I have to say I've also seen it in zoos in Europe but to a lesser extent.

I think that in Brazil the fascination mixed with disgust / fear thing that I've observed may come down to several things.

Venomous snakes are not often seen by Brazilians dwelling in urban areas, however, the reality in rural areas is that these reptiles and particularly the Jararaca do represent a very real danger and quite a few people die from bites every year.

These animals have a huge notoriety here and so I guess that urban visitors who may have never seen these reptiles in the wild may be fascinated to see "the monster" in the flesh but also fear / disgust due to what they have heard from rural dwelling family members or on the news or whatever.

There is definitely an opportunity for zoos to step in with environmental education and conventional zoos here definitely need to make improvements in this (though the famous Butantan institute and its serpentarium is excellent in this regard).
 
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Neil chace said:
I think a lot if people tend not to enter the reptile houses, and this is why. If you are grossed out by reptiles, you simply don't enter the reptile house. Instead, I think this comes from facilities that keep reptiles in exhibits in the same building as non-reptiles. The one reptile that I feel a lot of people do really like, however, is turtles and tortoises.
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Same applies to things like nocturnal houses. A few years ago my family and I went to Japan with my great aunt. She was terrified of mice and bats and snakes and all those nuts and bolts and she refused to go into the nocturnal house with us, we had to rush through the vivarium and small mammal house as well. I'm not blaming her for anything, people are people and people have phobias, but I am a bit mad I never go to see tarsiers since we rushed through the small mammals
 
People seem to flock around animals if they're active. If the individuals in the exhibit are active, people with flock around to see what they're doing.
 
I've also seen people flocking around a sleeping giant panda. I wonder if they'd like to see a big black and white cushion.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
Interesting; I've heard very little of this sentiment about reptiles and amphibians from visitors in US zoos. Most of the people who mill through reptile houses and past herp exhibits seem genuinely fascinated and intrigued by them, without malice or disgust. Maybe this is a geographic/cultural thing?
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I find that young children especially seem to like reptiles houses, but teens and adults generally don't.
 
Dassie rat said:
I've also seen people flocking around a sleeping giant panda. I wonder if they'd like to see a big black and white cushion.
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Well it is an animal "celebrity" / "rockstar" with a marketing saturated vintage of almost a century.

It carries that rarified status in garnering human sympathy that is seldom reached by any species but the large and cuddly mammals. It is a bit like the contestants in the "big brother" house or the celebs in those gossip magazines in that it doesn't really need to do anything remarkable to bring a flock of gawking slackjawed admirers.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate pandas , how could I hate any species ? (particularly when it doesn't actually have any fault, agency or choice in what humans feel about it) I understand the historical reasons for its exoticism / glamour in popular culture and the imperative of why it was adopted as a symbol of conservation. I actually admire how cleverly Peter Scott played his cards and his obvious insight into human psychology and marketing.

Rather I hate what the repurcussions have been for conservation and I just think we have (or should have long ago) moved on from that period now and need to be both more strategic in conservation decision making and make sure our efforts are more liberally distributed across the animal (and plant) kingdom.
 
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The article doesn't surprise me. China has several problems with the rights of humans and other animals. People who kill giant pandas can be put to death, while various species of endangered animals are sold in markets or used for 'medicinal' purposes. It seems that as long as giant pandas are protected, the existence of some other species isn't important.
 
Dassie rat said:
The article doesn't surprise me. China has several problems with the rights of humans and other animals. People who kill giant pandas can be put to death, while various species of endangered animals are sold in markets or used for 'medicinal' purposes. It seems that as long as giant pandas are protected, the existence of some other species isn't important.
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Very well put Dassie rat, I wholeheartedly agree with you.
 
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