Confrontations with other visitors

[JT]

We all seem to be a pretty passionate bunch on here so I wouldn't be surprised if people have a few stories to tell regarding confrontations and "heated debates" with other zoo visitors. Personally I've never confronted anyone, yet, but I've come very close in the past.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Just issues with people throwing things at animals, banging on glass windows, trying to feed them and children trying to climb over safety barriers and into enclosures etc.

I can think of one occasions where it almost got into a physical confrontation which was a guy who was squirting water from a water bottle into the face of a crab-eating fox.

The only physical confrontation was during an environmental education talk where an adult visitor tried to poke an axolotl with a biro pen deliberately to provoke me and I grabbed him by the forearm and made him drop the pen.

 

[CheeseChameleon1945]

I've never had a "physical" confrontation with someone, but was getting rather annoyed with a heated discussion with a visitor who started to consider the possibility of throwing food in the snow monkey enclosure, She never did actually throw in food but She even encouraged her kids to go feed the monkeys, I really don't know what kind of wheels she was was spinning in that brain of her's.

 

[JT]

Just issues with people throwing things at animals, banging on glass windows, trying to feed them and children trying to climb over safety barriers and into enclosures etc.

I can think of one occasions where it almost got into a physical confrontation which was a guy who was squirting water from a water bottle into the face of a crab-eating fox.

The only physical confrontation was during an environmental education talk where an adult visitor tried to poke an axolotl with a biro pen deliberately to provoke me and I grabbed him by the forearm and made him drop the pen.

It still baffles me how people can be so stupid and ignorant enough to want to do that purely to provoke someone.

 

[JT]

I've never had a "physical" confrontation with someone, but was getting rather annoyed with a heated discussion with a visitor who started to consider the possibility of throwing food in the snow monkey enclosure, She never did actually throw in food but She even encouraged her kids to go feed the monkeys, I really don't know what kind of wheels she was was spinning in that brain of her's.

Clearly a lack of basic understanding and respect

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

It still baffles me how people can be so stupid and ignorant enough to want to do that purely to provoke someone.

Sadly when you are doing environmental education within a zoo environment it is almost inevitable that you will eventually encounter a visitor who wants to get a rise out of you.

The hard thing is remaining calm and reacting to it in an assertive but not overly aggressive manner (either in the physical or verbal sense) which would cause bad PR.

 

[gentle lemur]

In June 2018, I was walking past the Tropical House at Chester with @bongorob and walking a few metres behind us was a group of 4 or 5 teenage girls, obviously part of a school group on an end of year trip. I must stress that they were basically nice girls happily enjoying a day out of school, but they were singing together at the tops of their voices. As a retired teacher, I learnt long ago that the trick of confronting people is not to be confrontational. I turned round and looked at them calmly - they stopped singing and looked at me. "Are you looking forward to seeing a lot of animals today, girls?" They all said "Yes!" in excited voices. I smiled and said quietly "Well you won't see many making that much noise". There was total silence as I turned to catch up with Rob.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

In June 2018, I was walking past the Tropical House at Chester with @bongorob and walking a few metres behind us was a group of 4 or 5 teenage girls, obviously part of a school group on an end of year trip. I must stress that they were basically nice girls happily enjoying a day out of school, but they were singing together at the tops of their voices. As a retired teacher, I learnt long ago that the trick of confronting people is not to be confrontational. I turned round and looked at them calmly - they stopped singing and looked at me. "Are you looking forward to seeing a lot of animals today, girls?" They all said "Yes!" in excited voices. I smiled and said quietly "Well you won't see many making that much noise". There was total silence as I turned to catch up with Rob.

"You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it." right?

 

[JT]

In June 2018, I was walking past the Tropical House at Chester with @bongorob and walking a few metres behind us was a group of 4 or 5 teenage girls, obviously part of a school group on an end of year trip. I must stress that they were basically nice girls happily enjoying a day out of school, but they were singing together at the tops of their voices. As a retired teacher, I learnt long ago that the trick of confronting people is not to be confrontational. I turned round and looked at them calmly - they stopped singing and looked at me. "Are you looking forward to seeing a lot of animals today, girls?" They all said "Yes!" in excited voices. I smiled and said quietly "Well you won't see many making that much noise". There was total silence as I turned to catch up with Rob.

Fair enough, I think particularly with teenagers the politer you are to them the politer they are back, that’s not always the case mind, a lot of us are completely unreasonable, but some kids really aren’t as bad as people might think.

 

[JT]

Sadly when you are doing environmental education within a zoo environment it is almost inevitable that you will eventually encounter a visitor who wants to get a rise out of you.

The hard thing is remaining calm and reacting to it in an assertive but not overly aggressive manner (either in the physical or verbal sense) which would cause bad PR.

It must be particularly annoying when it’s adults, they should be the ones setting examples to the children. It must be difficult to remain professional with such people.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

It must be particularly annoying when it’s adults, they should be the ones setting examples to the children. It must be difficult to remain professional with such people.

Yes, it definitely is difficult indeed and particularly with the knowledge that these people unlike children are very unlikely to ever change but thankfully these are really only a minority.

 

[Zoofan15]

I wouldn’t really call it a confrontation, but I was at the zoo with my eldest son (then aged seven) and was looking at the chimps:

A girl around his age said, “Oh look Nana, a monkey!”

My son replied, “That’s not a monkey stupid, it’s a chimp.”

The girl told her Nana he’d called her stupid and she replied that that wasn’t very nice (while glaring at me).

I said, “Yes, but at least my kid’s taxonomically correct!”

#ProudDad #LadDad #ZooDad

 

[Fallax]

I wouldn’t really call it a confrontation, but I was at the zoo with my eldest son (then aged seven) and was looking at the chimps:

A girl around his age said, “Oh look Nana, a monkey!”

My son replied, “That’s not a monkey stupid, it’s a chimp.”

The girl told her Nana he’d called her stupid and she replied that that wasn’t very nice (while glaring at me).

I said, “Yes, but at least my kid’s taxonomically correct!”

#ProudDad #LadDad #ZooDad

But if your kid was taxonomically correct he would know that apes cladistically fall under monkeys

 

[gentle lemur]

"You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it." right?

Yes indeed - I wondered whether to refer to it in my original post.

 

[JT]

Yes, it definitely is difficult indeed and particularly with the knowledge that these people unlike children are very unlikely to ever change but thankfully these are really only a minority.

Yeah, that’s understandable, I can imagine it can be quite rewarding when you genuinely do educate people and make them think however.

 

[JT]

I wouldn’t really call it a confrontation, but I was at the zoo with my eldest son (then aged seven) and was looking at the chimps:

A girl around his age said, “Oh look Nana, a monkey!”

My son replied, “That’s not a monkey stupid, it’s a chimp.”

The girl told her Nana he’d called her stupid and she replied that that wasn’t very nice (while glaring at me).

I said, “Yes, but at least my kid’s taxonomically correct!”

#ProudDad #LadDad #ZooDad

Although I don’t agree with calling somebody stupid, that is pretty funny

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Yeah, that’s understandable, I can imagine it can be quite rewarding when you genuinely do educate people and make them think however.

Definitely, one of the best rewards in fact, but there are some people out there who have a natural ability / talent with being educators with the public.

 

[GiratinaIsGod]

I wouldn’t really call it a confrontation, but I was at the zoo with my eldest son (then aged seven) and was looking at the chimps:

A girl around his age said, “Oh look Nana, a monkey!”

My son replied, “That’s not a monkey stupid, it’s a chimp.”

The girl told her Nana he’d called her stupid and she replied that that wasn’t very nice (while glaring at me).

I said, “Yes, but at least my kid’s taxonomically correct!”

#ProudDad #LadDad #ZooDad

Well if we get very technicial, are chimpanzes monkeys as member of the Simiiformes infraorder infact monkeys

 

[GiraffeJack10]

I once had a bit of a confrontation with a zoo visitor before. It was at Dudley zoo, one of my 'local' zoos, inside the giraffe house believe it or not. Some of you may have visited but if not I'll explain it to you, inside there is a tall barrier used to contain the giraffes, then there is a smaller barrier to keep visitors away from the giraffes. It was Summer so it was very busy and as I first entered the giraffe house that day I saw a group of small children standing on the other side of the lower barrier, presumably to get closer to the giraffes, but they left a few seconds after I arrived. Later in the day on my second visit to the giraffes I saw a man on the other side of the barrier lifting up a young child towards one of the giraffes, who was eating out of a bucket attached to the tall barrier. At first I just looked in a bit of disbelief at the ignorance of the man but after I said "You shouldn't be over there!" He glanced over at me and continued holding his child towards the giraffe. I tried to just shake if off and ignore it at first but then he decided to reach through the barrier and stroke the giraffe on the head while he was trying to eat. It was obvious that the giraffe felt uncomfortable with the man touching him. Seeing the animal stressed out by the ignorant and selfish behaviour of a zoo visitor really upset me so I said to him "I told you to stop!" He ignored me again, trying not to set a bad example to his child. Luckily the keeper was outside cleaning the paddock so I went outside and to tell them. Being a shy, introverted teenager, I felt nervous talking to tell the keeper because I didn't want to bother them but I did anyway. I said "Excuse me. Someone's on the other side of the fence stroking Kubwa." At first the keeper seemed annoyed as if I was making it up but when I mentioned the giraffe by name she ran out of the paddock and straight into the giraffe house. When I followed I heard her say to the man "As an adult you should know better!" And she told the man to leave.

That's the only time I've ever confronted a visitor. Normally I just mutter under my breath when I hear someone say something untrue about an animal, usually people calling apes, monkeys or telling their children myths about the species as if they were facts, but seeing someone ignoring signs and stressing an animal out in the process really angered me. Sorry for how long this is, I didn't plan on writing so much.

 

[FBBird]

I once had a bit of a confrontation with a zoo visitor before. It was at Dudley zoo, one of my 'local' zoos, inside the giraffe house believe it or not. Some of you may have visited but if not I'll explain it to you, inside there is a tall barrier used to contain the giraffes, then there is a smaller barrier to keep visitors away from the giraffes. It was Summer so it was very busy and as I first entered the giraffe house that day I saw a group of small children standing on the other side of the lower barrier, presumably to get closer to the giraffes, but they left a few seconds after I arrived. Later in the day on my second visit to the giraffes I saw a man on the other side of the barrier lifting up a young child towards one of the giraffes, who was eating out of a bucket attached to the tall barrier. At first I just looked in a bit of disbelief at the ignorance of the man but after I said "You shouldn't be over there!" He glanced over at me and continued holding his child towards the giraffe. I tried to just shake if off and ignore it at first but then he decided to reach through the barrier and stroke the giraffe on the head while he was trying to eat. It was obvious that the giraffe felt uncomfortable with the man touching him. Seeing the animal stressed out by the ignorant and selfish behaviour of a zoo visitor really upset me so I said to him "I told you to stop!" He ignored me again, trying not to set a bad example to his child. Luckily the keeper was outside cleaning the paddock so I went outside and to tell them. Being a shy, introverted teenager, I felt nervous talking to tell the keeper because I didn't want to bother them but I did anyway. I said "Excuse me. Someone's on the other side of the fence stroking Kubwa." At first the keeper seemed annoyed as if I was making it up but when I mentioned the giraffe by name she ran out of the paddock and straight into the giraffe house. When I followed I heard her say to the man "As an adult you should know better!" And she told the man to leave.

That's the only time I've ever confronted a visitor. Normally I just mutter under my breath when I hear someone say something untrue about an animal, usually people calling apes, monkeys or telling their children myths about the species as if they were facts, but seeing someone ignoring signs and stressing an animal out in the process really angered me. Sorry for how long this is, I didn't plan on writing so much.

Potentially dangerous situation if the giraffe felt threatened/annoyed, and took a swing at them