General Zoo Misconceptions

C

CZJimmy

Well-Known Member
Based on the thread, 'I think Zoos are taking over my life' I've decided to do a thread based on the mistakes that some of the general public make when viewing animals.

Some of the ones i've heard:
Okapi = Zebra, Horse or Gazelle
Tapir = Hippo
Apes = Monkeys
Lemur = Monkey
Indian Rhino = Hippo
Mandrill = "Gorilla with facepaint on"
Lion Cub = Baby tiger
Jaguar = Cheetah
Coati = Baby Bear or Monkey

Most of these were well signposted as well...

Feel free to add your own
 
Anything with horns is usually a deer. I've seen visitors standing by a tapir at Chester zoo and because there was a label on the fence for the capybara, they were convinced that is what they were looking at.

I've heard coatis described as Ring-tailed Lemurs and onagers as donkeys in the last week or two.
 
As I mentioned elsewhere:

Orangutan = Monkey, Gorilla, Gibbon
Gorilla = Chimp (and why do they have to make chimp noises at all apes?)
Swamp Monkeys = Baboons
Pied Wagtail = Baby Magpie

I must add a comment I heard in an Elephant House holding African and Indian Elephants: Child " Why has one got bigger ears than the other?" Parent: " One's a male and the other's the female".
 
bongorob said:
I've seen visitors standing by a tapir at Chester zoo and because there was a label on the fence for the capybara, they were convinced that is what they were looking at.
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Yeah, that happens in Copenhagen Zoo also, only with patagonian cavys and capibaras. The cheetah/leopard is also a classic. I mean, come on! The sign is right there! Right in front of you!
 
I remember when Taronga first got scimitar horned oryx. What you should realise is that until that time there had been a 20 year ban on import of ungulates, and suddenly there were these wonderful, almost mythical antelopes standing in front of me!

I stood there, amazed, watching them. A woman with two children wandered up, took a quick look, said; " oh, goats" in a disappointed voice and walked away!
 
bongorob said:
A I've seen visitors standing by a tapir at Chester zoo and because there was a label on the fence for the capybara, they were convinced that is what they were looking at.
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I should have mentioned that it was an illustrated sign, with a picture of a capybara on it.

Two years ago I noticed a label on a hornbill aviary at Birdworld had a common name which did not correspond to the Latin name. I wrote and asked which name was correct, and the head keeper wrote back saying it was the Latin name which was an error, and that although she checks the signs, this one had slipped past her. She also said how pleased she was to know there was at least one visitor who actually bothered to read the labels.
 
Elephant seal - wild northern variety in Calaforain was called a fat slug!!!!
Tapir - anteater, baby elephant,
Agouti - guinea pig. I hear it every visit!! I look at the Mythical macaws aviaries for quite long periods of time.

In the orang house at Chester, 60% of People did not know what the canopy was, so every time canopy was mentioned, it was changed to treetops.

Most people don't know what's in realm of the red ape, and think that there may be the new indian rhino or the baby elephants!!!
 
A common one is calling Wallabies - Kangaroos, plus Cassowarrys, Rheas and Emus are called Ostriches. Also a capybara was mistaken for a sheep on my visit to Paris Zoo.
 
standing in front of the ratel enclosure at edinburgh zoo how many times have i heard someone say "oh its just a badger" and walked on , yes it is a badger, but what a badger!
 
I think its a bit mean making fun of people just because they don't know what we know, its kind of like us (well, me) going to a car show and thinking a Falcon is a Holden or whatever then someone mocking me about it.

But anyway, here are my favourites...

a family looking at a coati, thinking its a raccoon (fair enough guess), then reading the sign and going "Ohhh! Its a coyote!"

a couple looking at white rhinos in a moated paddock (yes, at Orana Park). Number one says "Are they rhinos?". Number two replies "no they're hippos". Number one comes back with "But I thought hippos couldn't swim"

at Singapore's Sentosa aquarium, the man telling his girlfriend all about seasnakes while they are looking at sea cucumbers.

while I was working at Orana Park years ago a man comes up to me by the springbok paddock and says "are those springbok?". "Yes", I say. "Oh I thought so, because that's what the sign said" he replies.
 
true true chilidonias, but it kinda illustrates how far we are removed from nature these days. as we advance as a species each generation becomes less and less knowledgable about the actual environment they came from since we continue to adapt that environment further and further into something of our own.

its little wonder that the fact we are destroying the planet so badly is such a minor issue.

i'll be honest. unless you have an intelectual disability, i have little respect for stupid people. you don't have to be interested in animals, but i do question why some stupid people don't lie in bed at night and think "why does it rain?" or "why do jamaicans look african?, in fact where is jamaica?" or "since i'm going to vote on the weekend, maybe i better check and see what it is i actually am voting for, after all, it affects my life". instead they probably think about having sex with their husbands/wifes best friend - hence why stupid people breed more than us, the cycle continues and we slowly as a race become dumber and dumber.

so don't feel sorry for the stupid person, because WE'RE AT WAR WITH THEM!!... i used to think i was only gonna have two kids. you know, the world's over populated i'll just replace my own....blah, blah blah...STUFF THAT! i'm having as many damn kids as i can, becuse my stupid bogan neighbour is multiplying like a colony of lemmings and it gonna be my people that are keeping this planet alive whilst they are continuing to reproduce in the gutters.

so screw the stupidites! (not literally, though theres another theory as to how to battle the problem) they will be the end of us if we don't maintain our own. cro-magnon man didn't sit there and say, "aw its not the neadethals fault their stupid, just let em have the cave and root away, their kinda endearing"... no cro-magnon man probably raised their own kids on the blood of neanderthals and arn't we all damn thankful for that.

so next time some idiot tries to tell you a hippo is a rhino and rhino's like to swim and eat ants, kick them hard in the testicles and run away.

and hope that not only can they not catch you, but have probably become barren as well.
 
well said !

Anyways, back to visitor stupidity

serval = leopard
jaguar = leopard
anything spotty = leopard

callimico = baby gorilla
lar gibbons = baby orang
orang = orange gorilla

And, the best one i have heard was at jersey zoo, in the first impressions enclosure. In the enclosure, the spectacled bears have their own den, but the otters can go in and out of the bear den.
So, a family was watching the otters in the bears den, the kids said "look Mum, otters!" and Mum very carefully read the sign and explained to her children that they were wrong, and what they were looking at were very small bears !!!
 
Oh, and the biggest show of stupidity I have seen for a long time was at my zoo yesterday when an extremely stupid man sat on the safety barrier at the bear enclosure, and dangled his feet into the enclosure.
 
I well know how stupid the average person is. I used to be of the opinion that most people are of a basically similar mental capacity but since working with tourists I realise that I was gravely mistaken. I work with kiwi (the birds :) ) and the questions we get asked range from the mildly-silly such as "Why is it dark in there?" or "Can they fly?" all the way to the WTF!!!-questions like "Are they related to bears?", "Do they use their beak like a snorkel?", "Are they extinct?" (while looking at them walking around in front of them!), "Do they only have three legs?" (sigh. No, I don't know either...), "Do you have to feed them?" and my all-time favourite "Do they need surgery to get the egg out?" (I was so tempted to say that yes, once every generation a kiwi is born with surgical skills and it runs all round NZ performing operations).

It just feels bad mocking the poor peoples' brain power.....
 
Just to get another one off my chest ~ why, despite all indications to the contrary, are groups of animals always 'mummy, daddy and baby'?
 
because it pretty hard explaining to a kid that that is actually a dominant male and his castrated male offspring and three females that form part of his harem....
 
Gigit said:
Just to get another one off my chest ~ why, despite all indications to the contrary, are groups of animals always 'mummy, daddy and baby'?
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I think this is acceptable for young children as this is the only family structure that they would be familiar with.
 
kiruna said:
well said !

Anyways, back to visitor stupidity

serval = leopard
jaguar = leopard
anything spotty = leopard

callimico = baby gorilla
lar gibbons = baby orang
orang = orange gorilla

And, the best one i have heard was at jersey zoo, in the first impressions enclosure. In the enclosure, the spectacled bears have their own den, but the otters can go in and out of the bear den.
So, a family was watching the otters in the bears den, the kids said "look Mum, otters!" and Mum very carefully read the sign and explained to her children that they were wrong, and what they were looking at were very small bears !!!
Click to expand...

Classic visitor stupidities encountered at night safari singapore:

serval = baby leopard/cheetah
lion = white tiger
otter = swimming rat
flying squirrel = monkey
flamingo = ostrich
malayan tapir = anteater

But the most incredulous one has to be this:

malayan tapir = PANDA :eek:

How do you top that?!
 
patrick said:
because it pretty hard explaining to a kid that that is actually a dominant male and his castrated male offspring and three females that form part of his harem....
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Yeah, but they sometimes they are not even looking at one male, one female and one young :confused:
 
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