Anti social behaviour in zoos

S

Strathmorezoo

Well-Known Member
Is anti social behaviour in zoos better in recent years or worse?If worse are some zoos reputations worse than others?
eg...about 10 years ago whilst walking around Drayton Manor with the then zoo manager, Robin Roberts, Robin must have told visitors on at least four occasions to behave themselves. I remember asking him if this was normal, he responded by saying that visitors seem to behave worse at Drayton than other zoos .What do members think?
 
On the whole as a visitor the amount of ‘bad’ behaviour I’ve seen appears pretty consistent over time so I wouldn’t say it was worse and of course it is not the majority.

As examples I’d say people shoving, swearing, glass banging, screaming abuse at each other or their kids, or other visitors, littering, pushing and abusing people to get a terrible selfie of an animal they can’t name and / or allowing their kids to do any / all of the above would fall into my view of ‘bad’.

Then very small numbers of nappy chucking, public defecation / urination by kids or indeed adults etc, which I’ve seen but I don’t think it’s new and it can’t be that common.

I do find the behaviour in some places I’ve visited worse than others. Paradise Wildlife Park and Twycross are the places I’ve encountered the worst visitor behaviour. They were very crowded when I encountered it though and I’d hesitate to say either place have more bad behaviour than anyone else.

I’d draw an anecdotal connection between crowds, hot weather, parents and kids being stressed by their so called fun day out and the worst behaviour.

Broadly I guess anywhere where you put lots of people you get a small number who behave badly. Bit less at the zoo than the supermarket though as at the zoo you have to pay to get in.

Most people though seem to be having a good time and not impacting anyone else.
 
I have not really noticed an increase in bad behavior at zoos. I have certainly seen my share of it, but it does not seem to have gotten increasingly worse. I would say I see the most is people just being oblivious more than intentionally or recklessly bad. For example, people stopping in the middle of paths and blocking foot traffic. For the most part people seem well intentioned and like they're just trying to have a good time and see some cool animals. I would agree with Lafone that I have also noticed an increase in bad behavior in heat and in crowds. The crowd thing could simply be a result of having a bigger sample size.
 
Historically, I will say violence against animals and vandalism of property was much, much worse in the past. This was largely due to the fact that many city zoos were unfenced, free admission, and not closely monitored, allowing people with sadisitic tendencies easy access to animals, day or night. Reading old newspaper articles about my current will chill your blood with some of the evil stuff that people would get up to
 
Lafone said:
On the whole as a visitor the amount of ‘bad’ behaviour I’ve seen appears pretty consistent over time so I wouldn’t say it was worse and of course it is not the majority.

As examples I’d say people shoving, swearing, glass banging, screaming abuse at each other or their kids, or other visitors, littering, pushing and abusing people to get a terrible selfie of an animal they can’t name and / or allowing their kids to do any / all of the above would fall into my view of ‘bad’.

Then very small numbers of nappy chucking, public defecation / urination by kids or indeed adults etc, which I’ve seen but I don’t think it’s new and it can’t be that common.

I do find the behaviour in some places I’ve visited worse than others. Paradise Wildlife Park and Twycross are the places I’ve encountered the worst visitor behaviour. They were very crowded when I encountered it though and I’d hesitate to say either place have more bad behaviour than anyone else.

I’d draw an anecdotal connection between crowds, hot weather, parents and kids being stressed by their so called fun day out and the worst behaviour.

Broadly I guess anywhere where you put lots of people you get a small number who behave badly. Bit less at the zoo than the supermarket though as at the zoo you have to pay to get in.

Most people though seem to be having a good time and not impacting anyone else.
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Well,you really have witnessed some unsavoury things. When I was working at Dudley zoo I also saw alot of what you saw but the worst things we had to deal with was idiots climbing over safety barriers especially by the Lions ,where the new Orang facilities are now and then being subjected to abuse. Bank Holiday was always the worst!
 
I think on the whole most zoo visitors are well behaved. There are obviously going to be exceptions though, I haven't noticed those becoming more or less common over time.

The worst I saw would have been some time ago at Longleat. A couple decided to change their baby's nappy on a table in the cafe next to other people eating.

I visited Cotswold Wildlife Park in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic just as things were starting to open up again. Very little social distancing although as it is quite open it was still quite easy to keep out of the way of other people. Where paths were narrower they had introduced one way systems. One family of six decided they were going to go through it in the wrong direction.

I have seen a couple of bizarre examples of anti-social behaviour. Another from Longleat, the car in front of us stopped in the lion enclosure and the driver got out to go behind a tree. Luckily the lions were all asleep on the opposite side of the enclosure. I am not sure the driver was all there though. He was an elderly gentleman and appeared to have come dressed for his day out. Khaki shirt, khaki shorts, etc. I saw him again in the walk around section so he didn't come to any harm. The second example is people making noises at the animals. It is annoying but somewhat understandable if young children do it. On a recent visit to Marwell two middle aged couples (who obviously knew each other and neither were with children) were mooing at the banteng.

Going back to the OP where it mentioned Drayton Manor. I wonder if zoos attached to theme parks would see worse behaviour
 
NMM said:
I think on the whole most zoo visitors are well behaved. There are obviously going to be exceptions though, I haven't noticed those becoming more or less common over time.

The worst I saw would have been some time ago at Longleat. A couple decided to change their baby's nappy on a table in the cafe next to other people eating.

I visited Cotswold Wildlife Park in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic just as things were starting to open up again. Very little social distancing although as it is quite open it was still quite easy to keep out of the way of other people. Where paths were narrower they had introduced one way systems. One family of six decided they were going to go through it in the wrong direction.

I have seen a couple of bizarre examples of anti-social behaviour. Another from Longleat, the car in front of us stopped in the lion enclosure and the driver got out to go behind a tree. Luckily the lions were all asleep on the opposite side of the enclosure. I am not sure the driver was all there though. He was an elderly gentleman and appeared to have come dressed for his day out. Khaki shirt, khaki shorts, etc. I saw him again in the walk around section so he didn't come to any harm. The second example is people making noises at the animals. It is annoying but somewhat understandable if young children do it. On a recent visit to Marwell two middle aged couples (who obviously knew each other and neither were with children) were mooing at the banteng.

Going back to the OP where it mentioned Drayton Manor. I wonder if zoos attached to theme parks would see worse behaviour
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As I said, when walking with Robin the zoo manager ,he said exactly that, he thought visitor's did behave differently at Drayton compared to other zoos
 
Over time I think the behavior and harassment has shifted from focused on the animals, to the other visitors. But really, this goes beyond zoological sites, and feels like a global and communal issue in the post-covid world.
 
I would say since COVID and the rise of social media public behavior in every area has worsened. For example the amount of bad drivers pre-COVID to our present day at least here in America (Maybe just California and Ohio) has severely increased. As for zoos and aquariums I hate to say the same.

My local park is SeaWorld San Diego which I often frequent. However park guest behavior has become very uncivil. On the extreme side SeaWorld has seen guests climbing over barriers to take closer pictures with animals. Just last summer and man jumped the fence of one of the killer whale pools to take a better photo with him and the whale. Thankfully neither he nor the whale was harmed but he won't be allowed back into the park any time soon.

There was a big new story last year about a man going over a barrier at the San Diego Zoo to get his daughter closer to one of the elephants before it charged at them.

It seems that social media and being isolated has given many a false sense of self entitlement that has gone to more extreme lengths over recent years.

Visitors have threatened workers at SeaWorld over a certain item being out of stock or the price for something they deem unfair. (Can't blame them though as SeaWorld does have quite extreme prices these days :p).

Overall I would completely agree though that visitors behavior has gotten worse in recent years.
 
Jonathan Petersson said:
I would say since COVID and the rise of social media public behavior in every area has worsened. For example the amount of bad drivers pre-COVID to our present day at least here in America (Maybe just California and Ohio) has severely increased. As for zoos and aquariums I hate to say the same.

My local park is SeaWorld San Diego which I often frequent. However park guest behavior has become very uncivil. On the extreme side SeaWorld has seen guests climbing over barriers to take closer pictures with animals. Just last summer and man jumped the fence of one of the killer whale pools to take a better photo with him and the whale. Thankfully neither he nor the whale was harmed but he won't be allowed back into the park any time soon.

There was a big new story last year about a man going over a barrier at the San Diego Zoo to get his daughter closer to one of the elephants before it charged at them.

It seems that social media and being isolated has given many a false sense of self entitlement that has gone to more extreme lengths over recent years.

Visitors have threatened workers at SeaWorld over a certain item being out of stock or the price for something they deem unfair. (Can't blame them though as SeaWorld does have quite extreme prices these days :p).

Overall I would completely agree though that visitors behavior has gotten worse in recent years.
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Since Covid, I have heard many people complain about how bad the drivers are
 
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