Animal Stereotypes That You Hate

Corangurilla said:
Nearly every reconstruction of prehistoric proboscideans depicts them with ears like an Asian Elephant. I know ears don’t fossilize and all, but if some prehistoric proboscideans were larger than modern elephants, wouldn’t it make sense for them to have ears like an African Elephant that can cool down their massive bodies?
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I think it depends on the genus or species. Although something like Palaeoloxodon is larger than a modern elephant, it lived in a more temperate climate (generally) so wouldn’t need the same proportional cooling mechanism. The same goes for mammoths. When it comes to gomphotheres, however, I’m fairly certain there are more reconstructions with larger ears, which makes sense given their climactic and ecological similarities to the modern loxodonta, despite their smaller size.
 
Paleoarchontas said:
It’s been said already, but any reference to an animal being ‘ugly’ just annoys me so much. At Bristol Zoo a couple of weeks ago I overhead someone telling their kids about how ugly the Utilia spiny-tailed iguana was, which first of all makes no sense as there’s no reason for any organism adapted to its ecological niche to conform to arbitrary human standards of attraction, and second of all it just encourages the person’s child to take up those absurd beliefs as well. It genuinely annoyed me way more than it should’ve to hear it.
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Meet humans, aka Homo sapiens.

A species that in many developed parts of the world has actually managed to delude itself into thinking it has some kind of dominion over nature, to the point where it actually thinks nature cares about its opinions on things like the weather, natural disasters, predation, and as you said animal appearances.
 
Corangurilla said:
“Everything in Australia wants to kill you.”
Um… Africa??!?!!
Last time I checked, Australia isn’t currently home to mammalian predators that can and have hunted humans, nor mammalian herbivores that can make your remains look like a GMOD ragdoll.
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Not to mention the disease spreading mosquitoes and flies.
 
Paleoarchontas said:
It’s been said already, but any reference to an animal being ‘ugly’ just annoys me so much. At Bristol Zoo a couple of weeks ago I overhead someone telling their kids about how ugly the Utilia spiny-tailed iguana was, which first of all makes no sense as there’s no reason for any organism adapted to its ecological niche to conform to arbitrary human standards of attraction, and second of all it just encourages the person’s child to take up those absurd beliefs as well. It genuinely annoyed me way more than it should’ve to hear it.
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Oh yes, I feel you there. I can't tell me how many times I've heard people call anteaters and tapirs especially ugly (and getting them mixed up, which further grinds my gears). Why? Because they have long noses?! Oh, but then elephants, whose schnozz is absolutely massive, are called beautiful and majestic. Makes sense... -_-
 
Heck, even North America has more variety of dangerous megafauna than Australia, what with the bears and the pumas and the bison. I will grant that Australia pretty much takes the cake for venomous nasties, though.

Back on topic of the thread, I hate it when various myrmecophagous species are conflated with each other. It seems like as far as popular media is concerned, giant anteaters and aardvarks may as well be the same thing despite being unrelated species from different continents.

Also, I tend to be irritated by most stereotypes on hyenas (cowards, scavengers, ugly, ect.). And on top of that, more than once while at the Saint Louis Zoo, I've seen other guests apply hyena stereotypes to the painted wolves and actually call said canids hyenas because they can't tell the difference.
 
Paleoarchontas said:
It’s been said already, but any reference to an animal being ‘ugly’ just annoys me so much. At Bristol Zoo a couple of weeks ago I overhead someone telling their kids about how ugly the Utilia spiny-tailed iguana was, which first of all makes no sense as there’s no reason for any organism adapted to its ecological niche to conform to arbitrary human standards of attraction, and second of all it just encourages the person’s child to take up those absurd beliefs as well. It genuinely annoyed me way more than it should’ve to hear it.
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I don’t think any animals are ugly (not even blobfish), and especially don’t like to hear a critically endangered species being called that. Humans destroy the iguana’s habitat and hunt it to near extinction, and then call it “ugly” at a zoo? That’s the definition of disrespectful. I can’t say I’m surprised, though, considering the general negative attitude people have towards herps.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent - TV Tropes
 
Cowrie said:
And on top of that, more than once while at the Saint Louis Zoo, I've seen other guests apply hyena stereotypes to the painted wolves and actually call said canids hyenas because they can't tell the difference.
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Oh yes, every time I've been to a zoo with African wild dogs, I hear someone call them hyenas. At the Barcelona Zoo, EVERYONE called them hyenas, ignoring the plentiful signs showing that they WEREN'T hyenas. Ironic considering that years later, they'd be phased out and actual hyenas got their exhibit.
 
Birdsage said:
I don’t think any animals are ugly (not even blobfish), and especially don’t like to hear a critically endangered species being called that. Humans destroy the iguana’s habitat and hunt it to near extinction, and then call it “ugly” at a zoo? That’s the definition of disrespectful. I can’t say I’m surprised, though, considering the general negative attitude people have towards herps.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent - TV Tropes
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Saying that blobfish are ugly because of that one image of one out of the water is like saying deer are ugly because you saw a dead one on the side of the road.
And if you want “disrespectful”, just look at koalas. Bushfires were all over the news in late 2019/early 2020, with koalas being the most prominent victims, and what do people have to say about them? “Functionally extinct! No use saving them! Good riddance!”
I hate that I ruined koalas for so many people and I want to un-ruin them…
And aren’t humans hardwired to fear snakes or something?
 
Corangurilla said:
Saying that blobfish are ugly because of that one image of one out of the water is like saying deer are ugly because you saw a dead one on the side of the road.
And if you want “disrespectful”, just look at koalas. Bushfires were all over the news in late 2019/early 2020, with koalas being the most prominent victims, and what do people have to say about them? “Functionally extinct! No use saving them! Good riddance!”
I hate that I ruined koalas for so many people and I want to un-ruin them…
And aren’t humans hardwired to fear snakes or something?
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I hate this attitude in people, claiming that giant pandas and koalas are "useless animals" that "aren't worth saving". Look... Millions of years of evolution know better than the entitled opinion of a single species who, in turn, have bred animals that are more "useless" than those they selfishly deem so (ligers, goldfish with eyes popping out...). Pandas and Koalas, while I disagree with some zoos placing excess priority on them just for clout, are just as "worthy" as any other animal. Humans should stop measuring worth in everything they didn't create based on their standards...
Also, most primates hate and fear snakes and other reptiles, but I feel that the fear of them by humans is more of a cultural matter in most cases (I know true phobias exist). Back in ancient time, differentiating venomous and non-venomous snakes was hard, hence creating a generalized fear of them for many cultures, but let's not forget that many civilizations, like the Ancient Egyptians and Hopi Tribe, worshipped snakes as benevolent entities, including (sometimes exclusively) venomous ones! And yet other cultures, like the Maori, were fearful of harmless reptiles like Tuatara in their case. It's all very complex, and it may have to do with the fact that society gravitate more favourably towards mammals and disfavourably towards the others, gradually getting worse the "further away" they are from that clade.
 
JigerofLemuria said:
Also, most primates hate and fear snakes and other reptiles, but I feel that the fear of them by humans is more of a cultural matter in most cases (I know true phobias exist). Back in ancient time, differentiating venomous and non-venomous snakes was hard, hence creating a generalized fear of them for many cultures, but let's not forget that many civilizations, like the Ancient Egyptians and Hopi Tribe, worshipped snakes as benevolent entities, including (sometimes exclusively) venomous ones! And yet other cultures, like the Maori, were fearful of harmless reptiles like Tuatara in their case. It's all very complex, and it may have to do with the fact that society gravitate more favourably towards mammals and disfavourably towards the others, gradually getting worse the "further away" they are from that clade.
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Good point about the snake thing being primarily cultural in humans.
 
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