"Boring" animals

@ Sun Wukong: clearly you've visited the wrong zoo's then :)

in Antwerp some of the most popular keepers talks are those of the aquarium and the terrarium. allthough this is also somewhat due to the charisma of the keepers themselves.

but the idea of boring zoo animals differs greatly between common visitors or freaks like us. we find the typical animals boring and are more intrigued by rare/unusual/... species. while for the an occasional visitor an animal doing nothing or that they cannot see, is boring. (thank you animal planet/NGC/discovery for only showing those 10 active minutes in a lions day)

either way, I try not to find any animal boring. allthough I spend more time in aquaria and vivaria than, let's say, a herbivore enclosure. even if that herbivore is an okapi, masai giraffe, ...

so I think ones personal interest is also of importance in the definition of a "boring" animal.
 
Boring animals

@Sun Wukong- The most boring animal I have seen on the forum lately is the pompous human who seems to think that they know everything. Ring any bells???
 
I agree with Meaghan on this. Every time i go to a zoo it is always a different animal that i don't stay long at. I always thought the lions at Melbourne Zoo were boring but the last two times i've gone they have been doing something.
Once they were chasing each other around for a bit until they all settled down and the second time they were fighting loudly and most of the zoos visitors turned up to watch.
 
@forumbully: Re: "wrong zoo's"-seems to be the case;). The individual charisma of the presenter is indeed important, yet I think also it depends a lot on the item (i.e. the animal)itself presented. The difference between the concept of "boring animals" for respectively different groups of visitors that You already mentioned before is indeed a most noteworthy one, yet there are certain groups (mainly mammals and tropical birds) that even die-hard zoo fans seem to focus on. Haven't seen a lot of topics on f.e. fish, amphibians or crustaceans in zoo forums so far...
@ptig:Congrats, inner examination (and self criticism) is the first step towards self-improvement...;)
 
@Sun Wukong- Now you are a psychologist as well. Another few letters behind your secret identity. Maybe you are really Batman.
 
*YAWN* Now THIS is getting boring.

shouldn't there be a mod or something around that kan toss all this BS out and just leave us with posts that have (remotely) something to do with the thread or at least zoo-animals in general?
 
Send them a PM, they may just not have read this thread, they are:

ZooYouthBen (mod)
MARK (mod)
Sim (admin)
 
im going to add my two cents worth lol. one of the great things about the revitilisation of zoo exhibits across the world, and im particularly talking about every ones 'home zoo' here is the way a new exhibit, specifically designed for an animal's needs can make a once 'boring' species become interesting.
its goes back to Conway's bullfrog exhibit idea. a beautifully designed exhibit can make literally any animal a star in its own right, even those without charism because people get to see a species' for what they are, and all animals are intrinsically fascinating.
yes, popular animals like elephants will always draw a crowd, but to use the example of taronga's old pair Heman and Burma I dont think I ever spent more than 5 minutes watching them as they swayed and paced morosely. I think the only sense of wonderment they ever engendered once I got over their size was the dexterity of their trunk. Later I felt sorry for them and finally it was optimisn which gripped me as I learnt of their retirement to WPZ.
chuck $45 million towards a new elephant exhibit and display these animals in an enriching environment within a proper social context and you create a display which holds some people captivated for over an hour. Ive sat at the new food market many a time now and seen so many people just standing, watching, and of all ages and ethnicities and groupings. and they stay for ages. you could argue that elephants are always popular zoo animals but I think these eles take it to the next level with their swimming, wrestling, foraging, vocalisations and rampaging madly around the enclosure.
another species in a new home at taronga which has become a bit of a superstar is the binturong, who seem quite able to hold a crowd for a long time. the old bintie enclosure, first a low walled bananna grove and later a transitional cage never used to illicit much public interest whereas now the zoo presents these animals in a more natural context and puts people at tree level.
my final example is the fishing cat. the imaginative showcase for this species at taronga captivates people for ages. in direct comparison, the old fishing cat enclosure on the other side of the zoo is one people seem to just drift in and out of.
all animals can be fascinating. at least here in Australia, as we run out of animals so to speak the few exotics we have left might all be focused on and displayed well. ;)
 
@glyn: Re: Conway's Bullfrog imaginary exhibit-see what how this was discussed in this thread before. I'm not going to repeat everything what was mentioned there (would take too long;) ). All I can say is that a) there are certain species which are highly unlikely to become popular for the main audience, not matter how much effort You put into the presentation and enclosure design and b) the negative cost-/ visitor-effect-ratio and the reluctance/inability of many zoos to finance and maintain smart exhibits like Conway envisioned still make it very difficult to near impossible to promote more "cinderalla" species to a more popular status.
However, I agree with You that the improvement of husbandry and presentation can enormously raise the attractiveness of already popular species and even make some hitherto little-acknowledged species more popular (add the Hannover Zoo's wombat(s) as another example...)-but this effect is limited by many aspects, most often money, enthusiasm/creativity of the staff and the visitors' attention spans/ will to learn/ good manners.
 
Boring animals, Zebra, Most deer/antelope, Porcupines,(Except the ones at Porfell, they were actually outside moving.) Crocodiles (I'm sure they are all stuffed, the ones at Bristol haven't moved since 1988.)

Animals i'm sick of the sight of because they are everywhere, Ring tailed lemurs, Porcupines(usually hiding.), goats/sheep(Why?) Rabbits/Guinea pigs(Why again?) Wallabys, red panda, Bongos.

Animals i should be sick of the sight of but find myself watching for a good while, Meerkats, Leaf cutting Ants, Otters, Tapir, Capybara, bats, Peacocks.

Animals that always surprise me(And always seem to be mating.) Tortoises. These animals which are renowned for not doing anything, never fail to amuse me.
 
Johnny Morris. said:
Animals i'm sick of the sight of because they are everywhere, Ring tailed lemurs, Porcupines(usually hiding.), goats/sheep(Why?) Rabbits/Guinea pigs(Why again?) Wallabys, red panda, Bongos.
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Ha Ha truly international then... Auckland Zoo has all those species except for Bongo, which NZ zoo fans would love..!
 
I'm booorrrred with meerkats! It's not iike I don't like them . They are cute, frisky, and playful. It just that could describe about 6 other mongoose species.There are more but those are rare even in the wild. Denver zoo is great because banded as well and maybe dwarf. The all cute but thanks to Timon the others are hard to find
 
sitatunga said:
The all cute but thanks to Timon the others are hard to find
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actually, that has very little to do with "the lion king"
meerkats were popular zoo animals long before that.
the irony is that when it comes to private keeping, other mongoose species are abundant, while hardly any keeper has meerkats.

either way, I don't know how things are on your side of the water, but here in Europe, more and more zoos are showing several small predator species besides the "classic" meerkats.

most of time however, it are yellow, striped or dwarf mongoose.
I would like to see some more swamp mongoose, kusimanse and why not some other small predators like spotted neck otters, zorrilas, honeybadgers, ... these are not that rare or difficult to come by, yet you hardly see them in zoos here.
 
With small predators, the problem is making them active. Otherwise people just ignore them.
 
I will admit that there are two species in the mongoose/civet family that have become more popular the fossa and the binturong
 
"Boring" zoo animals

I have noticed an interesting phenomenon at zoos across the U.S., and I'm sure it happens worldwide. Parents are trying to point out the tiger or elephant or whatever to their children, but their children are more interested in the squirrel on the path in front of them. Clearly, a closeup experience with an active animal is enticing, even if it's a common local squirrel you could see anywhere.

Special presentations by keepers and docents, especially if accompanied by some type of enrichment to activate the animal, can make ANY animal interesting I think.

As for the problem of big cats sleeping, here's one solution I've long had but no zoo seems to want to try. Why not have lots of tigers (or leopards or...) and rotate them on exhibit for one hour at a time. They would be active the whole time, sniffing around where other cats have been, and can then return to their night quarters to sleep the day away.
 
Arizona Docent said:
As for the problem of big cats sleeping, here's one solution I've long had but no zoo seems to want to try. Why not have lots of tigers (...)
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Maybe because it's rather expensive and space/work-intensive...Several zoos seem to be already unable to provide their one or two big cats (not to mention their offspring) with a decent enough enclosure. "Lots" of big cats might only lead to "lots" of more problems...
 
I think the point with children is double:
a) they are still discovering the world and to them a squirrel/rabbit/duck is just as exotic as an elephant or tiger.
b) children quickly lose focus. I've seen kids go nuts with excitement over a dog barking, while in front of lion cages. a second later the lion roared (probably in response to the dog) and they ran back to the cage again.

Arizona Docent said:
As for the problem of big cats sleeping, here's one solution I've long had but no zoo seems to want to try. Why not have lots of tigers (or leopards or...) and rotate them on exhibit for one hour at a time. They would be active the whole time, sniffing around where other cats have been, and can then return to their night quarters to sleep the day away.
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keep in mind that you would have to have several large enclosures off exhibit then. AND that they all should be linked to the actual exhibit. take about loss of space. and let's be honest, space is generally one of the biggest problems in zoos.

aside from that: there are ample solutions in terms of enrichment. hiding food or faeces, put in toys, ... and they generally work for a short time. I'm pretty sure that after a few weeks your tigers will know the drill, walk around for 5 minutes to check if there's been no change and go and ly down again.
 
I've got a solution too: bite the bullet and stop keeping the damn tigers! They take up masses of space and don't do anything, so why not just replace them with more active animals. I very much doubt that this would have any significant impact on visitor numbers and would allow zoos, like london, to bulldoze their inadequate exhibits and get animals which actually do something!
 
Blackduiker

redpanda said:
I've got a solution too: bite the bullet and stop keeping the damn tigers! They take up masses of space and don't do anything, so why not just replace them with more active animals. I very much doubt that this would have any significant impact on visitor numbers and would allow zoos, like london, to bulldoze their inadequate exhibits and get animals which actually do something!
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I hope that was just a little bit of humor redpanda. If zoos start phasing out tigers; by, by tigers--hello extinction! How could anyone ever get tired of seeing tigers in zoos?
 
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