What's something you heard at a zoo or aquarium from another guest that irritated you?
- Thread starter Davdhole
- Start date
Regarding people getting things wrong through not reading signs, sometimes they can display their ignorance even when they do. Last year I saw a woman looking at the sign about cusimanses. The signs included a map of the world with the species's native range. This woman pointed at the shaded part of West Africa and said to her companions "Oh look, they are from Portugal".
Gondwanaland!In North America it seems that no one knows the difference between Africa and South America.
Today at the Minnesota zoo I heard someone at the sloth bear sign in the black bears exhibit and say is a sloth bear a giant sloth, and then his son corrected him by saying no, it’s a cross between a sloth and a bear. It was on a sign that said all species of bear.
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Heard four misidentifications at the zoo today, all made me laugh:
Gray Wolf = horsie
Asian Black Bear = big black pig
Cougar = cheetah
American Bison = big puppy
Gray Wolf = horsie
Asian Black Bear = big black pig
Cougar = cheetah
American Bison = big puppy
Please say this was a toddler...
Big puppy and horsie were. Not the other two.
I was at the zollman zoo yesterday. I heard a kid call a river otter “Nemo”
I mean, I kinda get calling a clownfish Nemo but an otter?
I mean, I kinda get calling a clownfish Nemo but an otter?
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JurassicMax
Well-Known Member
I can get a little bit annoyed when zoo guests misname species, children are a exception but I can't stand it if parents don't 'correct' them. I have once heard a child call a tapir a shark and the parents nodded and said yes that's true....
How often do you think people misname things in museums, botanical gardens and art galleries?
I'll let you on about a little secret: sometimes, as a parent, when you're really, really tired, when your child is cranky or when your thoughts are somewhere else, you just nod to the nonsense it utters and carry on, for the sake of peace.
Some parents are indeed ignorant and cannot tell the difference between a shark and a tapir. Or a Rubens and a Van Gogh, an Etruscan and a Mayan vase or a sequoia and a ginkgo tree.
Yet ranting about it online on a zoo fan forum won't change a thing. However, if it makes you feel better, so be it.
This isn't a story about a guest in a zoo, but I think it's funny anyway:
As many ZooChatters know, I own a handful of animals, one of them being a Northern Blue-Tongue Skink. Most of my family members have visited our house and have had interactions with my collection. My uncle called my mom to tell her about a Five-Lined Skink that he had read about in the newspaper, so she later called me over and asked me if I was familiar with the species. I was familiar with the species, as I do a fair amount of research into Wisconsin's native species.
My father was looking up photos of Five-Lined Skinks while Mom and I were talking, so he called us over and we looked at the pictures. Mom says to Dad, "So you were right, they are a salamander." Dad responds with, "Yeah, they are."
So I was like
and said, "No, it's like a skink, not a salamander. It's like the skink I have downstairs, they're just smaller." This caused my father to argue with me about it being a salamander instead of a skink.
The moral of the story: just because it isn't the size and color of a Northern Blue Tongue Skink, doesn't mean it isn't a skink. Skinks can come in all sizes and colors.
As many ZooChatters know, I own a handful of animals, one of them being a Northern Blue-Tongue Skink. Most of my family members have visited our house and have had interactions with my collection. My uncle called my mom to tell her about a Five-Lined Skink that he had read about in the newspaper, so she later called me over and asked me if I was familiar with the species. I was familiar with the species, as I do a fair amount of research into Wisconsin's native species.
My father was looking up photos of Five-Lined Skinks while Mom and I were talking, so he called us over and we looked at the pictures. Mom says to Dad, "So you were right, they are a salamander." Dad responds with, "Yeah, they are."
So I was like
and said, "No, it's like a skink, not a salamander. It's like the skink I have downstairs, they're just smaller." This caused my father to argue with me about it being a salamander instead of a skink.The moral of the story: just because it isn't the size and color of a Northern Blue Tongue Skink, doesn't mean it isn't a skink. Skinks can come in all sizes and colors.
Not in a zoo but similar. In fourth grade, my teacher showed me a book that had been made by a previous class. Each student in this class had to make a report on an animal native to Wisconsin and draw a picture of it. I flipped through and found a report on Mudpuppies that said: "The mudpuppy is a lizard that lives underwater".
I saw some malnourished axolotls for sale on Craiglist that were described as "lizards that live underwater" as well. According to the post, they also primarily eat feeder fish.
Not necessarily at a zoo, but my librarian in maybe 1st grade thought that a lion and a tiger were the same thing (lions being the males, tigers being the females) when I politely corrected her she threatened to like give me detention or something (fuzzy memories)
JurassicMax
Well-Known Member
That's true and my choice of words might have not been the best as well. However, I am just sharing something that I heard in the zoo which annoyed me a little bit.
Jess_Greenwood
Member
When I was volunteering, people looking at the snow leopards for all of 2 minutes and stating they 'must be bored' because they were both asleep. *Faceplant*
It’s not irritating, but often guests, including foreign tourists, skip over or squander their opportunity to see animals that are rare in captivity. I think zoos and aquariums need to advertise better online and in the parks themselves if they are the only holders of something.
JurassicMax
Well-Known Member
So true! I could look for hours hoping to catch a glimps of the Potto in Artis, but most people were confused of why I was taking so long to see the sloth.... When the Potto did leave his hiding spot, most people kept on walking by. Can't blame them, but still a pitty that they didn't know how rare that species really is in captivity.
I totally agree with you, but it can be quite hard sometimes. For example, not many people would be interested if the Rosamond Gifford Zoo advertised that "we have the only white winged vampire bat!" just because it's too obscure and not many people are interested in what would sound like a vampire bat with white wings. But hey, I'm not the average zoo visitor.