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

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LOL! I read that to the other half, who replied that obviously "the giraffes only have those long necks to pluck monkeys out of the trees to eat, and elephants have long trunks to suck innocent meerkats out of their burrows.. the bastards!"

Pootle said:
I find that sort of thing funny, general ignorance of some poeple is hilarious.


At Chester about 2 winters ago, the conversation eventually got to...

(some bloke) "You mean Rhino's dont eat meat??!!"
(me) "No, pretty much just grass and hay"
(sb) "But they are massive, they must eat meat"
(me) "Ok, your right, they go to KFC twice a week"
(sb) "Now your winding me up" ... pause for thought..
(sb) "But you are sure they dont eat meat"
(me) "Yep, (smiling at this stage)"
(sb) "I thought they got fed like lions and that"
(me) "Oh no, not rhinos" still smiling


and as innocently as he arrived he walked off away....probably to hopefully catch the elephants polishing off their special treat of roast pork with all the trimings.
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Well yes I don't suppose they posses a degree in zoology, but as long as they behave themselves and do not distress the animals, thank heavens for them, for without them paying at the gate, buying the guide books cornets, chips and cuddly toys from the gift shop there would not be a zoo open in this country.
 
TARZAN said:
Well yes I don't suppose they posses a degree in zoology, but as long as they behave themselves and do not distress the animals, thank heavens for them, for without them paying at the gate, buying the guide books cornets, chips and cuddly toys from the gift shop there would not be a zoo open in this country.
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:confused:
 
I certainly don't expect the zoo visiting public to have degrees in zoology, and thank the heavens for that too, or the zoo education staff would have nothing to do all day! ;)

I do expect at least some attempt at figuring out what they are looking at though. If in doubt, look at the signs... Even places that have scarce signage do have signs, but some people just can't be bothered to read them...

Standing next to a sign on the wall that read;

JAGUARS

Parents; 'Look Johnny, look at the leopards.'
Me *polite cough and nod toward the sign
Parents; 'Can you see them Johnny? Can you see the leopards?'
Me *polite cough and point at the sign
Parents; 'There they are, do you see them now? Yes, they're leopards, isn't that nice?'
Me *polite cough; 'Um, they're Jaguars.'
Parents *blank expressions; 'What?'
Me *points to the sign
Parents; 'Yes Johnny the leopards. Let's go and see the Tigers now.'

Oh dear. I probably had more chance with the kid in the pushchair. :p
 
Secret Squirrel said:
I certainly don't expect the zoo visiting public to have degrees in zoology, and thank the heavens for that too, or the zoo education staff would have nothing to do all day! ;)

I do expect at least some attempt at figuring out what they are looking at though. If in doubt, look at the signs... Even places that have scarce signage do have signs, but some people just can't be bothered to read them...

Standing next to a sign on the wall that read;

JAGUARS

Parents; 'Look Johnny, look at the leopards.'
Me *polite cough and nod toward the sign
Parents; 'Can you see them Johnny? Can you see the leopards?'
Me *polite cough and point at the sign
Parents; 'There they are, do you see them now? Yes, they're leopards, isn't that nice?'
Me *polite cough; 'Um, they're Jaguars.'
Parents *blank expressions; 'What?'
Me *points to the sign
Parents; 'Yes Johnny the leopards. Let's go and see the Tigers now.'

Oh dear. I probably had more chance with the kid in the pushchair. :p
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You should have followed them to see where they ended up on their visit to the tigers - the meerkats most likely ;p
 
kkkp said:
:confused:
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I think the point that Tarzan was making was that it is unreasonable to expect the ordinary zoo visitor to be an expert, and that before we are too snooty about the ignorance of such visitors we should remember that without them, the zoos we love would not be able to remain open.

I would add that many visitors don't really give a toss whether what they are looking at is a monkey or an ape, a jaguar or a leopard - and why should they? Does it really matter? I quite enjoy pottering about, say, the British Museum, but I really don't know a great deal about Saxon England nor, to be honest, do I want to know that much. If some smug historian pointed out to me that what I had described as a sword was in fact a ceremonial sabre, I would be pretty unimpressed.

If people are doing something which annoys the animals, then do something about it (by which I mean, confront them, or alert a keeper - not post a grumpy message about it on ZooChat); if someone thinks that a tapir is an anteater - live with it!
 
Pootle said:
I find that sort of thing funny, general ignorance of some poeple is hilarious.


At Chester about 2 winters ago, the conversation eventually got to...

(some bloke) "You mean Rhino's dont eat meat??!!"
(me) "No, pretty much just grass and hay"
(sb) "But they are massive, they must eat meat"
(me) "Ok, your right, they go to KFC twice a week"
(sb) "Now your winding me up" ... pause for thought..
(sb) "But you are sure they dont eat meat"
(me) "Yep, (smiling at this stage)"
(sb) "I thought they got fed like lions and that"
(me) "Oh no, not rhinos" still smiling


and as innocently as he arrived he walked off away....probably to hopefully catch the elephants polishing off their special treat of roast pork with all the trimings.
Click to expand...



People like this are normally trying to wind other's up. He probably knew full well that Rhino's are herbivores but was having a private joke winding you up. When people act stupid ignore them and just say things shortly and walk off. It doesn't give them the satisfaction.
 
sooty mangabey said:
I think the point that Tarzan was making was that it is unreasonable to expect the ordinary zoo visitor to be an expert, and that before we are too snooty about the ignorance of such visitors we should remember that without them, the zoos we love would not be able to remain open.

I would add that many visitors don't really give a toss whether what they are looking at is a monkey or an ape, a jaguar or a leopard - and why should they? Does it really matter? I quite enjoy pottering about, say, the British Museum, but I really don't know a great deal about Saxon England nor, to be honest, do I want to know that much. If some smug historian pointed out to me that what I had described as a sword was in fact a ceremonial sabre, I would be pretty unimpressed.

If people are doing something which annoys the animals, then do something about it (by which I mean, confront them, or alert a keeper - not post a grumpy message about it on ZooChat); if someone thinks that a tapir is an anteater - live with it!
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I'm sure we all appreciate that the majority (a guess) of zoo visitors are a necessary evil and that the purpose of their visits is not education. For some, memorably described elsewhere on the forum as 'aggressive chavs and tattoed women', their first choice for a day out is probably not the British Museum - I don't think you see many visitors there throwing crisps at the artefacts or letting their children run shrieking through the galleries.

No doubt some of us do confront offensive visitors while others try to avoid a bloody nose, and keepers are not always around. We turn to this thread to voice our frustrations and smugness with fellow sufferers, safe in the knowledge that our victims, unaware of Zoochat, will be none the wiser, in more ways than one.
 
Two things to remember, we were all children ourselves once, and like it or not zoos are not just run for enthusiasts, just as rail and bus companies are not run for transport enthusiasts, they are run for everyone. However I do not visit zoos at weekends or during school holidays if I can help it, I have always found September a good month for zoo visiting, the weather is usually still O K and there are not many school trips in. The behaviour of these school trips, at times, leaves alot to be desired, for some reason I have always found the school children at Edinburgh to be well behaved, the teachers telling them about the animals and they appear to be interested. Unfortunately this is certainly not the case at our other capital city zoo, in they come in their droves on a free pass from red Ken, if the free pass was appreciated all well and good, in my experience this is certainly not the case, their behaviour at times can only be described as deplorable, made even worse by the teachers doing absolutely nothing about it. I remember discussing this with a zoo director who unfortunately is no longer with us, her solution to this problem was to go onto the coach on arrival, inform the teacher that bad behaviour would not be tolerated on the premises, and if she caught them behaving badly they would be "back on their coach, out the gates and down the road quicker than they got here" that's the way to do it!
 
As a teacher I would be horrified if my any of my class behaved like that on a trip - they wouldn't do it twice! Unfortunately not all kids are interested in animals but that doesn't excuse bad behaviour.

As for stuff that annoys - it's generally only people teasing or feeding the animals. Anything I can live with, we've all paid to get in after all.

Cases of mistaken identity usually just make me smile, if the person is genuinely interested I might speak to them, but in general I would let them get on with enjoying their visit in the their own way.
 
Deviant*Strain said:
People like this are normally trying to wind other's up. He probably knew full well that Rhino's are herbivores but was having a private joke winding you up. When people act stupid ignore them and just say things shortly and walk off. It doesn't give them the satisfaction.
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1. He really didn't know, fair enough on him. ;)
2. You where probably not there :confused:
3. I posted it because it is/was funny :)
4. When people act stupid, I will make my own decision as whether to ignore them, react or do what ever I think it best practice to resolve or comment on the situation.
5. I gained the staisfaction of comedy during the conversation.

My advice to you my friend is dont comment on a post you aint too hot on yourself, make sense? - thats how forum rants usually start :D

now back to the zoo fun ...
 
I guess the gorilla exhibit at the zoo brings in the ******. But that's what happens when everyone wants to see a baby.
There was a high school photography class visiting the zoo today and they were having a ball taking awesome shots of the gorillas with their stupid cameras that weren't working right. We have a railing with signs that talk about gorillas, then some dirt and plants beyond that, and then the glass panels around the exhibit. I overheard a girl say to her friend, "And she [zoo docent] was like, you can't be sitting on the railing. It's there for a reason. And I'm like I just wanna good photo! And I wouldn't be doin' this if she wasn't in the way with her big camera!" Perhaps she should have tapped on the glass too and forced the gorilla to smile for her.

I overheard another girl say, "That baby is ugly! I don't do [relate to] ugly things!" Although I never say what she looked like I want to lean in and whisper, "Perhaps you shouldn't look in the mirror then..."
 
Another thing really irritates me is my mum always making these "Ahhh" noises or "How cute" when viewing the animals. I just love a quiet day at the zoo and she always irks me by doing this but at least she seems to enjoy viewing the animals and enjoys the day out.
 
UrMumzAGoat said:
Another thing really irritates me is my mum always making these "Ahhh" noises or "How cute" when viewing the animals. I just love a quiet day at the zoo and she always irks me by doing this but at least she seems to enjoy viewing the animals and enjoys the day out.
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We mums can't help it! I read that Professor Hal Herzog, a specialist in relationships between humans and animals, believes that women are biologically more susceptible to cute animals. It's all down to hormones and the childrearing instinct. Men don't have the same response, he says. I'm sure her reaction means your mum does enjoy looking at the animals :)
 
UrMumzAGoat said:
Another thing really irritates me is my mum always making these "Ahhh" noises or "How cute" when viewing the animals. I just love a quiet day at the zoo and she always irks me by doing this but at least she seems to enjoy viewing the animals and enjoys the day out.
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I hope your mother doesn't have to pay for you to get in, you misery guts!

I'm shocked now I'd assumed Gigit was male.
 
KEEPER said:
"Don´t scream in the nearly gorilla enclosure ,and of course no flashing them" can read and listen at bioparc, don´t bang the glass too, and keepers in the public area, but the people (in general) it does not make case don't mention it.
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Flashing the gorillas would certainly be the height of rudeness. :p
 
CGSwans said:
Flashing the gorillas would certainly be the height of rudeness. :p
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It would most probably get the gorillas attention. And that of the keepers.

:p

Hix
 
People tapping on the animals glass really annoys me.

Also when people shout or throw things in the enclosures to wake the animal up or such.

I generally get angry at a lot of people in zoos. :mad:
 
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