General Zoo Misconceptions

Just scanning back I thought I'd add the one I heard back in Juneat Edinburgh. A teacher taking her class around the zoo reaches the bottom of the carnivore walk and the Sumatran tigers. I'm sure most people who have visited Edinburgh will be familiar with the rough layout of these enclosures and will know that at the front are two "dens" in which the tigers can sleep, after all, which cat of any size doesn't like to curl up in a corner and sleep.

First howler (keep in mind that these kids would have been about 8 or 9 years old), "Look kids, a lion with stripes!"

The class then move from Tibor to Chandra. Chandra is the female, Tibor's sister in fact, and often sleeps in her den. I'm convinced it's where she feels safe. The teacher then comes out with, "Now that's why zoos are bad for animals, they spend all their time sleeping in small parts of the enclosure."

I walked quickly away, I wasn't in uniform at the time and correcting a teacher in front of her class probably wouldn't have been a good move anyway!
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Red-backed bearded saki- A Bin Laden monkey :confused:
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Doesn't it ever occur to people that other people may be joking, that they have ongoing family jokes?

We call Roseate spoonbills Rosetta because of a mistake someone once made, it doesn't mean I'm stupid, it doesn't mean I don't know what they are called, it's just an ongoing thing that supercilious Zoochatters aren't in on.

So if someone calls a monkey a Bin Laden monkey or something else a reversal continium it may be a joke or a recurring family thing that you know nothing about, it doesn't mean they are stupid.

That's a whole different thing to saying something like "Now that's why zoos are bad for animals, they spend all their time sleeping in small parts of the enclosure."
 
Simon McGlary said:
I walked quickly away, I wasn't in uniform at the time and correcting a teacher in front of her class probably wouldn't have been a good move anyway!
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I dare you.;)

Teachers should teach not waffle on about a load of rubbish!!!
 
Whilst Chester Zoo's spectacled bears were foraging amongst some logs, people were saying they were making a nest :/
 
Ah well, not too bad then, but I didn't really look like nest building at all :P.
 
* A peacock is a turkey.
* A snowleopard is a cheetah. One girl was convinced the snowleopard was a type of lion or something because they seemed too small to be leopards. Her boyfriend had to point out the sign, "Snow Leopard".
* I heard a docent in training call our Ecosystem exhibit the Echosystem exhibit.
 
I heard at Colchester zoo a couple of years ago at the elephants when Kito and Jambo were there. There were these 2 small boys near by and one of them told his mother that elephant "wrinkles" show you how old they are by which direction there pointing. So Kito was really, really old...

Got me laughing!!:D
 
This might not be at a particular zoo, or zoo for that matter but here it goes:

Today we had to present an endangered species presentation to the class + teacher for Geography. A fellow student started presenting his, and then I realised that it would be interesting. The animal he chose was the so called endangered "White Bengal Tiger". He then preceeded to discuss that they are rare as they are killed for their valuable fur in the wild (yet it showed a 'normal' colour variety bengal tiger) and as traditional Asian medicines. He also mentioned that the 'normal' colour variety was killed in zoos as they are not worth as much to the zoo in terms of value or display. After this he finally mentioned that they were inbred from the founding tiger Mohan with his daughter, but did not discuss that they were also hybrids with other species of tiger. When asked about conservation efforts involving the white tigers, he simply said that there is no use for that in the wild and zoos only breed them for display value. He also briefly mentioned that Mike Tyson had one. In the final slide, he than said that they are not actually a species, but quote "Who would not want to save one of these?" end quote with many pictures of baby white tigers.

Sorry about the long rant but I just wanted to get that off my chest. I think he has been misinformed in some way or another but what is funny is that he always believes he has the most amount of animal knowledge in the class and is always first to answer animal-related questions that are nearly half the time wrong.
 
Similarly to the previous post, my class had to research the the different types of snake venom (neurotoxic, hemotoxic etc.) for science. one of the class members exclaimed that "all" snakes in australia are venomous and in the event of coming across one in the wild to kill it asap.
Thankfully the teacher knew better and corrected the student before I almost had a mental breakdown.
 
Here's one I heard at Sandwell Valley RSPB on a recent visit mother to son you see that thier it's an albino goose, there are lots of different ones you have to check the colours on the beaks (this was a mute swan)
 
adrian1963 said:
Here's one I heard at Sandwell Valley RSPB on a recent visit mother to son you see that thier it's an albino goose, there are lots of different ones you have to check the colours on the beaks (this was a mute swan)
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In fairness, although the albino goose bit is wrong, the colours on the beaks are the easiest way to tell (white) swans apart. :)
 
On the bus this morning a woman was taking her son to the zoo (I think Dudley) when her son asked her will I see the penguins the mother replied it maybe to cold for them to be out?
 
adrian1963 said:
On the bus this morning a woman was taking her son to the zoo (I think Dudley) when her son asked her will I see the penguins the mother replied it maybe to cold for them to be out?
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Well if it is too cold for them, why dont they protest by leaving the zoo and marching in true Edinburgh style down to the nearest retail park and take up residence at Toys R Us for the festive season?:cool:
 
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