What animal looks different in real life to what you expected?

I was really surprised by the comparison of Tshuna and Daseep at Dudley. Siberian tigers are so pale and so big.

It's a pity that kind of mix isn't really something that can be planned.
 
My first encounter with a live spotted hyena was one snoozing just in front of the glass at Busch Gardens. Huge! Growing up with "The Lion King" as a kid, I'd pegged them as coyote-sized up to that point.

Some other animals bigger than I'd expected:
- Spider monkeys
- Okapi
- American elk. They can easily rival moose sometimes!
- Warthog
- Eurasian lynx
- Maned wolf
- African crested porcupine
- King cobra & black mamba

Smaller than expected:
- Cape buffalo (only seen as museum mounts but surprisingly squat)
- Muskox (likewise; the name "ox" is misleading!)
- Many bear species, Asian black and sloth especially
- Leopard & snow leopard (the latter especially)
- Platypus (only seen mounts)
 
TeaLovingDave said:
The richness of colour in the coat of a Sumatran Tiger in particular is rather emphasised by seeing one standing next to the relatively-pale Amur Tiger!
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The Sumantran tigers do have a lovely coat. Really stood out to me when I saw them at the San Antonio Zoo, prior to that, I was used to seeing Malayan tigers at the Houston Zoo.
 
I don't know about you guys, but for me, sometimes it really does surprise me just how big white rhinoceroses are. I've always understood they were large animals, but anytime I see them at close proximity (their indoor exhibit at the Bronx Zoo allows you to come fairly close), I am in awe at how massive they are (and also, the space is a bit small, so that may make them seem bigger). They're also very long animals!
 
AnaheimZoo said:
I don't know about you guys, but for me, sometimes it really does surprise me just how big white rhinoceroses are. I've always understood they were large animals, but anytime I see them at close proximity (their indoor exhibit at the Bronx Zoo allows you to come fairly close), I am in awe at how massive they are (and also, the space is a bit small, so that may make them seem bigger). They're also very long animals!
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I've never noticed the size of white rhino's because they have always tended to be in large open spaces when I've seen them. When I first saw an Indian rhino it was FAR larger than I thought, in my head all Asian rhino's were smaller than the Africans!
 
Last time I saw a rhino it was in touching distance, so did seem like a gigantic beast (it was at Flamingo Land in their small paddock, as they are not in their large paddock in the winter).
 
I was surprised when I first saw Rhino's for the first time. They were actually smaller than I thought they would be. I also found that they used their lips to pick up small pieces of hay in a manner incredibly similar to horses, the "snup snup" sound that their lips make while trying to ferret out stray pieces of hay actually sounded exactly the same to me.

I was also surprised at how small lions were when I first saw one; also they looked so perfect I was expecting a battery pack to fall out of one of them. Additionally, I had no idea that they male would have such a pronounced tuft on the end of his tail.
 
OrangePerson said:
Totally agree, I always knew they are big, tall animals but when I stood next to Thorn in the house at Chester I got a whole new perspective on what enormous animals they are, even without the neck length, their shoulder height is mind boggling.
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And their heads are huge too!
 
I saw a kagu for the first time yesterday and it was much bigger than I expected.
Looking at pictures, they looked like a smallish ground bird like a small plover but they're much bigger and chunkier.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
And their heads are huge too!
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Yes!

Giraffes have huge heads, big knobbly things they are on adult males too. When you see a giraffe from a distance their heads don't stick out so much, but when on a level with one of their heads, their are enormous.

Also I am probably one of a small number of people who find the smell of a male giraffe quite nice in a weird way.... :o
 
Pootle said:
Also I am probably one of a small number of people who find the smell of a male giraffe quite nice in a weird way.... :o
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As I have noted in the past, the train between Chester and Liverpool - which I always use to reach Bache, from where I walk to the zoo - always tends to smell of the Chester Zoo giraffe house.

What this says about the inhabitants of the Wirral, Merseyside and northern Cheshire, I will leave to you :p
 
TeaLovingDave said:
As I have noted in the past, the train between Chester and Liverpool - which I always use to reach Bache, from where I walk to the zoo - always tends to smell of the Chester Zoo giraffe house.

What this says about the inhabitants of the Wirral, Merseyside and northern Cheshire, I will leave to you :p
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Its a bit like the smell of ammonia (but pleasanter!), maybe the smell you get on your journey is the wind carrying whiffs from the chemical plants on the Wirral.

Or maybe some of those 'inhabitants' are 'cooking' things they shouldn't be.

Then again, have you checked your washing powder recently....:D
 
Quite a few of the birds I saw at Weltvogelpark Walsrode today weren't the sizes I expected.

Capuchin birds, Blue-crowned Motmots, Horned Guans and Long-wattled Umbrella Birds were much bigger than I expected and Sickle-billed Vangas were huge compared to what I thought.
Though the White-tailed Trogon and Twelve-wired Birds of Paradise were a fair bit smaller than I expected.
 
I always thougt yaks would be very large, but they are actually quite small.
Giant otter and boto both were bigger than I expected.
I always thought toucans and hornbills to be equal sized,
but toucans were quite tiny compared to some hornbill-species.

Tayras were also very different from what I expected.
They look so bulky and, to be hounest, ulgy on most photos
In real they are beautiful and agile.
 
The Scarlet Tanager. It was smaller than I thought it would be. Also the females/juveniles were more yellowish than I expected. I knew they would be a warm green but not that warm. Also the Coopers Hawk, its mannerisms are much different than I anticipated. They are so much more active fliers than I initially anticipated, not mostly gliders like Red Tails are. They almost seem like something other than a hawk when they are coming up the street looking for bird feeders.
 
From my recent trips,
The ratels at Havana zoo were larger than i expected.
Also cuban crocodiles in the outdoor exhibits at the Havana zoos are also much larger than the ones i had seen at indoor exhibits in Houston and Barcelona zoos.
Gaur at Merida zoo in Yucatan are also very large up close.
 
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