Zoo/Aquarium Hot Takes

Neil chace said:
I don't mind seeing llamas- if it's at a farm or petting zoo. But in a zoo setting, definitely a waste of space. Why not just get guanaco or vicuña? However, I'd choose seeing llamas over seeing alpacas any day of the week.
Click to expand...

A Llama is the lower limit of what domestic animal I’d accept seeing in a zoo. New Zealand has a glut of Alpaca, so seeing a Llama is a novelty. Similarly, I’d be happy to see camels as New Zealand is between camel farms and they’ve been phased out of all our zoos.

For me, it’s about novelty. To put it simply, I don’t wanna see species in a zoo I can see for free at any farm; anymore than I’d want to visit an aquarium and see rows upon rows of goldfish tanks.
 
Neil chace said:
I don't mind seeing llamas- if it's at a farm or petting zoo. But in a zoo setting, definitely a waste of space. Why not just get guanaco or vicuña? However, I'd choose seeing llamas over seeing alpacas any day of the week.
Click to expand...

I've spent way, way too much time watching videos on youtube of people visiting the various safari parks in the US, trying to spot different ungulates to confirm, and most of them are overrun with llamas. Llamas are also super pushy and are popular, so a lot of the videos end up being something like 90% llama. So. many. llamas.
 
Speaking of the Llamas, they are one of a few particular animals that I would consider to be “trendy” these days, along with the Alpaca, sloths, and the Narwhal. All are overrated in my opinion.
 
In fact, I almost said “the ever-popular (with the public) Meerkat”, but refrained for that reason.
 
Birdsage said:
In fact, I almost said “the ever-popular (with the public) Meerkat”, but refrained for that reason.
Click to expand...

Well they gained popularity starting with The Lion King and then Meerkat Manor and have never lost it since. They're familiar and cute so while many of us zoo people are long over their trendy phase, the general public is still enamored with them.
 
Birdsage said:
In fact, I almost said “the ever-popular (with the public) Meerkat”, but refrained for that reason.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't put meerkats in with llamas and sloths. They're mostly restricted to AZA zoos, vs absolutely everywhere, and meerkats aren't really on products like llamas and sloths are. You could go to walmart, target, etc right now and find adult clothing with llamas and sloths, greeting cards, socks, all sorts of stuff.
 
Yeah, I did decide against putting the Meerkat in there. Popular in zoos they may be, but you are right that they are not as meteorically omnipresent as the others.
 
Birdsage said:
Speaking of the Llamas, they are one of a few particular animals that I would consider to be “trendy” these days, along with the Alpaca, sloths, and the Narwhal. All are overrated in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I feel like these animals were "trendy" way more 10 years ago than they are today to be honest.
 
I'm not sure when is Narwhal trendy (different culture I assume), but i'd say alpaca and llama are very popular animals now in my region. We got our alpaca farms and that is a huge thing before pandemic. Not to mention the chinese name for alpaca sounds like a bad word in Mandarin.
 
Speaking of popular animals, I feel like opossums (particularly Virginian opossums) are getting more popular, which I don’t mind. But when English speakers refer them as possums I get miffed because of how opossums end up overshadowing actual possums that are unjustly underrated already.
 
PossumRoach said:
Speaking of popular animals, I feel like opossums (particularly Virginian opossums) are getting more popular, which I don’t mind. But when English speakers refer them as possums I get miffed because of how opossums end up overshadowing actual possums that are unjustly underrated already.
Click to expand...

It’s always interesting hearing how fond people are of opossums and possums, given possums are the most hated animal in New Zealand.

There’s no natural predators of possums in New Zealand and our native trees and birds have no defences against them. They often eat the eggs and fledglings of native birds in the nest.

In New Zealand, people hunt and trap possums and generally don’t brake when they see one crossing the road.
 
Zoofan15 said:
It’s always interesting hearing how fond people are of opossums and possums, given possums are the most hated animal in New Zealand.

There’s no natural predators of possums in New Zealand and our native trees and birds have no defences against them. They often eat the eggs and fledglings of native birds in the nest.

In New Zealand, people hunt and trap possums and generally don’t brake when they see one crossing the road.
Click to expand...

I don’t even hear people outside Australia and New Zealand acknowledge, let alone show much love to brushtail possums. I feel like they’d be like coatis and binturongs which are not commonly known but not ambiguous. As far as I know, the US already has restrictions against importing them (despite the mainland being a, for lack of a better word, “stronger” ecosystem compared to NZ) which is one reason why they got completely phased out in the US.

I feel like the only reason why opossums are loved is because some people like “ugly” or “edgy” stuff to look cool or quirky. Ironically this makes them mainstream to the point which liking opossums doesn’t make one look “quirky”.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top