Misidentified Animals

I've heard many people call animals at Chester zoo what there not for example

Aye ayes being called cats

Red forest duikers being called baby okapis

Agouti being called a koala which is what I heard yesterday

Banteng and congo buffalo being called deer

Zebras being called horses in pyjamas

Turkish spiny mice being called giant fat ugly rats

Porcupines giant spiky rats

Red pandas also being called cats

Hornbills being called eagles

And giant otters seals
 
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Some people really need to look at the signage because in the 15 years I have been visiting chester as I starting visiting a month after I was born I have seen many people standing right in front of signage and still calling animals what their not
 
Unfortunately [or perhaps fortunately] all that I can come up with was the time in October last year a visitor was saying in regards to the sitatunga at Marwell "that's a nyala."
I guess now since Marwell has no nyala, the confusion now no longer takes place...
 
dillotest0 said:
Unfortunately [or perhaps fortunately] all that I can come up with was the time in October last year a visitor was saying in regards to the sitatunga at Marwell "that's a nyala."
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I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of the people on this forum couldn't tell a female Sitatunga and female Nyala apart - they're really quite similar species and the mistake has been made many times in the photo gallery by members.
 
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If we were to note down every misidentified animal we heard via the general public, we could fill a book - nobody would ever buy it, nobody would ever read it, but the volume of content would be there.

The thing to keep in mind is that the general public don’t have the knowledge of Zoology we have, so mistakes are inevitable. Mistakes range from reasonable (female Nyala versus female Sitatunga) to mistakes that make you wonder how these people cross the road unassisted (calling a binturong a flamingo).

If we were to discuss a topic we knew next to nothing about, we’d probably see parallels in our comments (hopefully more towards the reasonable end of the scale).
 
I heard two misidentified animals recently:
  1. Someone misidentified a "Fennec Fox" as a "Fennel Fox" (fennel is a plant in the carrot family)
  2. Someone misidentified meerkats as prairie dogs. They then read the exhibit signage, whereupon they realized their mistake and further went on to compare the meerkats to "Pumba the Meerkat," from the Lion King. :confused:
(for the unfamiliar, Pumba from the Lion King is actually a warthog)
 
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Jambo said:
I don't think any zoochatter would have not watched the Lion King. It's an iconic animal movie!:D
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I rather think that many older members have not because they weren't children when it was released. I haven't seen it, for example.
 
Chlidonias said:
I rather think that many older members have not because they weren't children when it was released. I haven't seen it, for example.
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Wow, i'm shocked to say the least. But it does make sense, as you weren't children at the time, and also didn't have children yourselves to see the movie either way.
 
birdsandbats said:
I'm assuming that was your only problem with it? It's often considered one of the best animated movies of all time.
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I was being a little facetious about the hyenas (only a little) but honestly? Just never cared for it as a movie. Don’t think I’ve seen it in 20 years, and felt no urge to see the remake.
 
Sheather said:
Nah I loved the remake, especially the intro scene
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I've seen it in cinemas, and I have to say, it just dosen't feel right. Even the Lion King sequels too; none of them ever did live up to the original.
 
Steering this thread back on topic, I remember people calling the Coatis at Bergen County "coyotes" when they were new (more mispronunciation than misidentification, but still wrong), and I always made sure to correct them if I could (and I was no older than 6 at the time :p).
Every zoo has at least 1 animal that gets misidentified more than the others. For Henry Vilas, I've heard Aayla the Aardvark referred to as a pig (I get it), an armadillo (close but not close at all), and a rat (ok that's just insulting). As for the Hyraxes, I've mainly heard "guinea pig" and "groundhog".
 
Not visitors but I believe most aquariums in Japan misidentify their giant isopods as bathynomus giganteus instead of the native species. Unless I'm just mistaken or they source theirs from the atlantic?
 
hari Jones said:
I've heard many people call animals at Chester zoo what there not for example

Aye ayes being called cats

Red forest duikers being called baby okapis

Agouti being called a koala which is what I heard yesterday

Banteng and congo buffalo being called deer

Zebras being called horses in pyjamas

Turkish spiny mice being called giant fat ugly rats

Porcupines giant spiky rats

Red pandas also being called cats

Hornbills being called eagles

And giant otters seals
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I think "horse in pajamas" is a slang/jokey way of describing a zebra.
And in defense of the last one, giant otters kind of look like most reconstructions of early seals.
SHAVINGTONZOO said:
Does that top my hearing someone tell their child that a binturong was a flamingo?

No, think mine's still the worst.
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I... how do you... what?:confused:
Binturongs are about as far from a flamingo as you can get.
Binturong
  • Short legs
  • Black fur
  • Tree-climber
  • Solitary
  • Quiet
  • Smells like buttered popcorn
Flamingo
  • Long legs
  • Pink feathers
  • Wader
  • Gregarious
  • Noisy
  • Smells like a dishwasher full of dirty, festering water
 
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