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

[Gigit]

[we must remember that not all zoos (some of the smaller ones) have the resources to support a volunteer program.

anyway...visitors what are you gonna do?

Well, I still think it's the solution for zoos, like my local one, who do have a lot of volunteers. They wouldn't need to be a permanent presence - just at the very busy times of the day/year when the problems usually occur.

 

[Jesse]

I think it would be great if we did have staff monitoring visitors, especially in butterfly houses and walk through exhibits. the idea of having them during busy times is too another good idea but not all zoos have them (volunteers), if they did it would be a great thing. I think if zoos currently do not have volunteer programs in place at the moment they almost certainly will in the future. the number of zoos that don't have theses types of programs now are very small and will grow smaller with time.

 

[Sun Wukong]

I think it would be great if we did have staff monitoring visitors...

It depends; the guy watching visitors at the walk-through barbary macaque exhibit at Erfurt zoo had an attitude quite similiar to some officials of the GDR surveillance society. Might have been a former Stasi member...

 

[Pertinax]

It depends; the guy watching visitors at the walk-through barbary macaque exhibit at Erfurt zoo had an attitude quite similiar to some officials of the GDR surveillance society. Might have been a former Stasi member...

I agree- there are limits. I once saw a visitor offer a completely harmless twig through the mesh to the female gorilla 'Zaire' at London Zoo. But before she could receive this interesting little 'gift' to brighten her day, a zoo volunteer rushed over and harangued the guilty party for doing this- the result of overzealous 'programming' IMO.

 

[Gigit]

It depends; the guy watching visitors at the walk-through barbary macaque exhibit at Erfurt zoo had an attitude quite similiar to some officials of the GDR surveillance society. Might have been a former Stasi member...

When Paignton had a new baby rhino, there was a very scary volunteer controlling the crowds in the rhino house. A case of power going to their head, but I wouldn't mind seeing them tackling the feeders and harassers!

 

[Jesse]

like you said, "it depends". of course it should already be happening with staff just keeping an eye out, thats all.
some power hungry volunteers look for someone to catch out but incidents like the ones mentioned shouldn't discourage the thought of having them indirectly monitoring visitors.

 

[Pertinax]

I think it would be particularly helpful if zoos that have large schoolparties visiting, did employ volunteers who were on hand on those days specifically to monitor/control just their behaviour. As previously mentioned on here, their teachers often seem invisible and unable to moderate their behaviour which at times, at least in the UK,can be really abysmal. They are not only a liability to the animals but can seriously detract from other (paying) visitors enjoyment of their day out.

 

[Panthera Puss]

I agree- there are limits. I once saw a visitor offer a completely harmless twig through the mesh to the female gorilla 'Zaire' at London Zoo. But before she could receive this interesting little 'gift' to brighten her day, a zoo volunteer rushed over and harangued the guilty party for doing this- the result of overzealous 'programming' IMO.

That volunteer was totally correct though - you have to have zero tolerance or nothing with animal contact. For one thing, you can't be forever rewriting the rules for every incident (and you can't be second-guessing who is trying to kill an animal & who is harmless), for another it's agenda-setting to (other) visitors - next time they might try & stroke a tiger because it was OK the first time. You would however politely explain your decision to the visitor, in fact it you can turn the situation to a positive advantage by getting talking to them about the animals.

 

[Pertinax]

That volunteer was totally correct though - you have to have zero tolerance or nothing with animal contact. For one thing, you can't be forever rewriting the rules for every incident (and you can't be second-guessing who is trying to kill an animal & who is harmless)

Yes, I can see your point- I just thought it was rather sad to see.

 

[Panthera Puss]

Yes, I can see your point- I just thought it was rather sad to see.

We've probably all felt the urge as visitors to give enrichment to captive animals - one problem is that what's a bit of fun to one individual animal can seem like stressful teasing to another. Also there can be factors the public just don't register such as nearby animals getting wound up. One consolation is that the same volunteers / keepers / general zoo workers who stop visitors doing it will often add ad-hoc enrichment for animals that they know when it's appropriate to do so, and strictly on the animals' terms. And yes, I agree your example is rather sad to hear about!

 

[OrangePerson]

I know it was mentioned earlier but I think people should have their flashes turned off as they enter the zoo. If I was an animal I would go bonkers with flashes going off in my face all the time and most of the time it is because people just don't bother to learn how to use their cameras (same applies to stupid concert-goers - yes your flash really helps from row ZZ!!!) If I can't get a picture without flash then I would rather do without the picture.
This MORE than irritates me!!!!!

 

[Maguari]

I've very rarely seen any indication of animals being bothered by flash at all. It's one those things that always gets said but I really don't know how much actual evidence there is either way.

 

[Javan Rhino]

I use the flash often enough in darker buildings, since if I'm using shutter-speed then some of the time [if the animal is moving] the image comes out blury. I've never seen an animal bothered by it though, they just continue to act like they were doing.

 

[SMR]

I've very rarely seen any indication of animals being bothered by flash at all.

Anecdotal, but my cat absolutely loathes any type of flash, to the point where she will leave the room if I pick one up. She enjoys a good thunder storm though!

I look at it this way; it hurts my eyes and leaves a 'spot' when someone fires a flash directly at me, and many animals have far more sensitive vision so I'd rather not subject them to something that might be worse, especially if they've nowhere to go.

 

[Javan Rhino]

Maybe it depends on the individual animal or species? I know Loro Parque in Tenerife have (or did have) signs by the Gorilla enclosure saying not to use the flash. And obviously there is no place that will let you photograph bats with the flash (which makes it impossible, since I can't get the shutter speed right ).

I've used flash for quite a few species without the animal bothering (usually not even blinking).

 

[SMR]

Maybe it depends on the individual animal or species?

Perhaps, but I don't know what they are so won't take the chance. I can't think of many places in a zoo where a flash would be beneficial anyway.

 

[Javan Rhino]

Perhaps, but I don't know what they are so won't take the chance. I can't think of many places in a zoo where a flash would be beneficial anyway.

Inside some buildings (tropical realm at chester) it has helped. I'm moving away from using it though since I'm trying to get out of auto mode and starting to fiddle with the shutter speed and apeture.

 

[Tig]

It did not happen in a zoo, but here it goes:

Today, I was out for a walk with a "mate" of mine. Suddenly he picks up a frog (common frog), flings it in the air and tries to kick it. He misses, but still it falls down and is dead. When asked why the HELL he did this to an innocent animal that he did not even have anything against, he replied: "Because it's funny". I can sort of understand that you kill a spider if you are afraid of them, but why kill a random frog that has not bothered you the least - and they are even protected in Denmark, so I could actually have turned him in to the police, but I think that is overdoing it, and the police probably would not bother. Nonetheless, I felt like hitting him at the side of the head, but I restrained myself because I do not like violence and I would not be better than him, then.

If one of my friends did this, they would get a facefull of fist. I'm not kidding. Kudos for keeping your cool. Me... not so much.

 

[Tig]

How 'bout the parents that let their kids climb up on the rails in front of exhibits? They are there for a reason...

 

[Shirokuma]

I went to my local zoo, London Zoo this afternoon and left after about seven minutes - never again will I go on a public holiday. As I was leaving I heard a man in his forties (I guess) complaining to his family that they clearly hadn't spent any money on the place since he last visited as an eight year old and that the place was a rip off. I was tempted to take a copy of the zoo map and show him every development that had taken place since his eighth birthday which would be most of the zoo but something told me he wouldn't appreciate it.