Things people do that irritate you when you go to the zoo? #2

Another head shaking example of a parent not reading a sign when their child takes an interest.

At Beale Wildlife Park's guanaco paddock.
Kid - Whilst pointing at the sign "Dad, what does it say they are?"
Kid's Dad - "It says they are llamas".
Kid - "I don't think it says llamas, it says guh... uh... ah..."
Kid's Dad - "Must be alpacas then".
 
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I mean, they correctly identified the overall animal, even if they got the species wrong. So it's not so bad imo. But yeah, just read the damn signs.
 
rhinofan12 said:
The amount of times at Whipsnade I've heard people call the free roaming mara deer capybara is unreal. Don't know why it winds me up so much though.
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It’s super common to hear there indeed. I suppose as they are related and people see the signs about Mara also being related to Guinea pigs, which people tend to know about Capys, they probably link them together.

It wasn’t annoying but it did make me chuckle at YWP yesterday when in their walkthrough which includes capybara and Mara, a woman held court for some time on the Mara being Capybara and when her daughter read the sign out about the Mara and pointed to it she said ‘well that’s because they are the Capybara from Mara’.
 
A.L. Gardner said:
"Monkey", everything's a monkey, from a lemur to a gorilla...and everything is male too, for some weird reason.
In addition to the previous comment re children, parents who let their kids chase free roaming birds and animals.
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The "monkey" thing really gets to me, too, and it's adults doing this too, not just kids. We have educational signage around our zoo here in Auckland, but something explaining the difference between monkeys and apes and prosimians is sorely needed.

And yes, the assuming everything is male annoys me as well. Especially when you get grown adults yelling, at the sight of an obviously lactating mother orangutan. "HE'S got a baby!" Sheesh.
 
Mr. Bobcat said:
When parents let their children run wild, screaming and yelling, pounding on exhibit fronts. This ruins the experience for everyone else.
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I have seen examples where an animal is happily going about its business if full view when a couple of children run up shouting and screaming and start jumping, climbing or banging on the exhibit. The animal scarpers and hides. The parents then arrive about 10 or 20 seconds behind their kids, look at the exhibit and say there is nothing in there.

I do wonder if some of the negative reviews of zoos you see, where people are complaining about hardly seeing any animals, are actually from the parents of badly behaved children, when the reason they didn't see anything is because their kids scared everything off before they got to the exhibit.

ApeLadyNZ said:
The "monkey" thing really gets to me, too, and it's adults doing this too, not just kids. We have educational signage around our zoo here in Auckland, but something explaining the difference between monkeys and apes and prosimians is sorely needed.

And yes, the assuming everything is male annoys me as well. Especially when you get grown adults yelling, at the sight of an obviously lactating mother orangutan. "HE'S got a baby!" Sheesh.
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Another variation I have seen a few times is people saying that different species in the same, or even adjacent enclosures are adults and babies.

Examples I have heard this for:
Addax and Dorcas Gazelle (shared enclosure)
Binturong and Cusimanse (adjacent enclosure)
Slender Loris and Mouse Lemur (adjacent enclosure)
 
NMM said:
I do wonder if some of the negative reviews of zoos you see, where people are complaining about hardly seeing any animals, are actually from the parents of badly behaved children, when the reason they didn't see anything is because their kids scared everything off before they got to the exhibit.
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It potentially could be a contributing factor, I've seen that happen several times. Worst ones though are school groups, I've seen so many animals duck and cover ahead of them.
 
There are signs everywhere and yet, an Ocelot is a baby Leopard. Go figure.
Or a Leopard is a Cheetah, or vice versa, they don't even look the same.
At my hometown zoo, in Greenville, SC, they even have signs showing the different coat patterns.
 
Another major annoyance is people talking loudly and constantly through a Keeper talk. Apart from it being irritating it's so rude. Visitors who are actually interested in the animals, not just seeing them as there for their personal entertainment, are left straining to hear anything.
 
What bothers me most, without a doubt, is when animals are disturbed. I can understand trying to get an animal's attention to take a picture, but not things like hitting it hard or shouting. In some places, especially in Spain and Italy, I've seen many people doing this. In general, in the rest of Europe, it seems that most people are much more respectful. Perhaps it's because in the Mediterranean, there are still many people who think that zoos are just entertainment and that animals should amuse them.
 
aramacao said:
What bothers me most, without a doubt, is when animals are disturbed. I can understand trying to get an animal's attention to take a picture, but not things like hitting it hard or shouting. In some places, especially in Spain and Italy, I've seen many people doing this. In general, in the rest of Europe, it seems that most people are much more respectful. Perhaps it's because in the Mediterranean, there are still many people who think that zoos are just entertainment and that animals should amuse them.
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I think the fact people in Spain and Italy don't appreciate zoos for their work means either glass-knockers or zoo-haters reign supreme in those places...
 
A.L. Gardner said:
Another major annoyance is people talking loudly and constantly through a Keeper talk. Apart from it being irritating it's so rude. Visitors who are actually interested in the animals, not just seeing them as there for their personal entertainment, are left straining to hear anything.
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Reminds me of another example I saw in the past. In the middle of a keeper talk about Eurasian lynx, a woman turns up and barges herself and her kids to the front shouting "look at the lion!".
 
A.L. Gardner said:
Frankly I duck and cover when I see a school group, they're almost always appallingly behaved.
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I think if general visitors behaved in the way school groups sometimes do, they would be cautioned or even barred future entry. But the zoos have always seemed unable to do anything about the atrocious school group behaviour. Do they get paid by the local education authority or somewhere to host them?
 
Pertinax said:
I think if general visitors behaved in the way school groups sometimes do, they would be cautioned or even barred future entry. But the zoos have always seemed unable to do anything about the atrocious school group behaviour. Do they get paid by the local education authority or somewhere to host them?
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A good question. I'm guessing they get paid a fair bit. I've only seen one well behaved school group, and guessing that was a private school by the uniform. Mostly school groups are screaming so loudly they can't hear or learn anything whilst there. Real animals, and real animal smells, seem to disgust them. Seems they're only interested in fake animals, or if the real animal is going to the loo.
 
Pertinax said:
I think if general visitors behaved in the way school groups sometimes do, they would be cautioned or even barred future entry. But the zoos have always seemed unable to do anything about the atrocious school group behaviour. Do they get paid by the local education authority or somewhere to host them?
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From personal experience, I'm obliged to say an obnoxiously clichéd phrase; "the older they are, the worse they get.". In general, younger children, who are accompanied by teachers at all times, tend to be better behaved than the older children who are generally allowed to roam the zoo freely with little to no supervision.
I see it all the time at Barcelona zoo, and at the Cologne and Frankfurt zoo, which I visited at the same time as COUNTLESS school groups, it was the tweens and teens that made me want to pull my hair out. Confession; at the Grzimek Haus, there were a bunch of twelvies RUNNING IN CIRCLES around the house, laughing and yelling... So at one point I lost my cool and snarled "MUND HALTEN!!" At them. That shut them up...
 
JigerofLemuria said:
From personal experience, I'm obliged to say an obnoxiously clichéd phrase; "the older they are, the worse they get.". In general, younger children, who are accompanied by teachers at all times, tend to be better behaved than the older children who are generally allowed to roam the zoo freely with little to no supervision.
I see it all the time at Barcelona zoo, and at the Cologne and Frankfurt zoo, which I visited at the same time as COUNTLESS school groups, it was the tweens and teens that made me want to pull my hair out. Confession; at the Grzimek Haus, there were a bunch of twelvies RUNNING IN CIRCLES around the house, laughing and yelling... So at one point I lost my cool and snarled "MUND HALTEN!!" At them. That shut them up...
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I’d echo that in the main - I see a lot of school groups at Whipsnade if I take a day off to go and mostly while a little noisy (they are excited and I hope they stay that way) the younger kids are usually fine. They are under heavy escort, in their luminous gilets so very obvious and being moved along. Older ones often don’t want to be there and their behaviour reflects that and they are also less well supervised. I actually see worse behaviour from younger kids when they are out with their parents!

Having said that I had a great chat with some older kids about chimps on my last visit - one of them had done loads of research on behaviours and I mentioned the name of one of the chimps and we were off, teacher wandered over and it was a great chat. Made me happy to see younger folk so engaged - they are the future enthusiasts. In the main though older kids are more prone to messing about. If one kid gets into conservation or a passion for nature through that school trip though it’s a result. We used to host visits in my father’s racing yard and some kids visiting had never seen a horse in real life or seen what the countryside was like. There’s some great opportunities in visits. Teachers need to control their kids though.
 
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