General Zoo Misconceptions

Mind you they could always jump on a National Coach (from Dudley Bus Station 410)and make it to Hamleys and save the store some Money?
 
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People invariably complain that the gorillas must be bored because they always look quite sad. Zoo visitors don't realise that gorillas haven't got the facial muscles that we have, and always look fairly glum. I do wish more zoos would put up a notice to inform visitors of this fact, rather than letting visiotors think there's something wrong with the way the gorillas are kept. And, like others communicating on this thread, I am tired of people referring to apes as monkeys. You hear them all the time communicating their ignorance to their children: "Look at the big monkey! Isn't the big monkey funny!" Again, a simple notice could put them straight.
Female Spider Monkeys are almost always called "males" because of the elongated, penis-like, clitoris.
Piranha and wolves, amongst many other animals, are wrongly considered by the public to be extremely dangerous and fearsome, not knowing that much of their sinister reputation is based on a myth.
Visitors often moan about animals housed singly, without realising that many animal species are solitary by nature, and (for example, cheetahs and some otters), may breed better if brought together intermittently.
 
I have a video somewhere of my partner getting into an arguement with a schoolteacher in front of her class at orang utan forest at Colchester Zoo.
The teacher was continually telling her class they were male and female, mainly because of the 2 males Tiga is a lot younger (approx 9 ?) and she was acting like she knew it all!
ALL he said was actually they are 2 males and pointed out that Tiga has not yet developed his male orang characteristics. She snapped back at him 'and how do you know that?' to which he shouted back 'I can bloody read and get my facts right why don't you try it' lol I walked away and left them to it :D

The best thing I have ever seen at Colchester was very recently. We followed a girl approx 4 or 5 and her elderly grandparents to the Sun bears.

The nan turned to her and said 'now do you think they are Paddington or pooh bears?'
The girl without even looking away from the bears said 'gran they are sun bears, they are called that because of the orange shape on their chests, they come from ..... and eat...... etc'

I very nearly clapped :p the look on the grannies faces was classic. I wish we had stalked them around the zoo :eek:
 
At Marwell Zoo I was walking a little way behind a family (comprising a mother and her two teenage sons), but close enough to hear what they were saying. At the World of Lemurs they paused to peer into a vivarium labelled "Chameleon" (I can't remember what species). “That’s funny,” the mother was saying to her children; “it says ‘ere on this label that there’s a chameleon in ‘ere. I always thought a chameleon was some kind of reptile. But it’s not! Look, see, a chameleon is actually a kind of insect similar to a grasshopper. Well, well, well, I've learnt something new there!"

The family moved on.

I arrived in front of the tank and looked in. The chameleon was squatting, minding its own business, on an upper branch in a corner of the tank, its back pressed snugly against the roof of the cage. Perched on a branch in the middle of the tank was a locust, put in there as lunch for the tank’s rightful occupant. And it was this that the woman had been looking at!

I despair! How can we expect the general public to tell the difference between hippos and rhinos, leopards and cheetahs, if they don't even know a locust from a chameleon??
 
zooman64 said:
I despair! How can we expect the general public to tell the difference between hippos and rhinos, leopards and cheetahs, if they don't even know a locust from a chameleon??
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I think she might've been joking. ;)
 
When volunteering at Durrell in the summer, I heard a few and got told of some others including:

Gentle Lemur = Koala
Ibis' = Vultures
And children were always shouting "KING JULIAN" at the ring tails.

My absolute favourite has to be people coming in and asking where the dodo's are (they're the logo for the zoo).
 
A mother at the San Diego zoo was telling her children that the siamangs (that are in the same enclosure as the orangutans) were baby orangutans. When I told her that they were siamangs she turned to them and said "Oh they are "sea anemones".
 
Some of the comments we've heard in our zoo.

Ringtailed lemurs called Meerkats.
Rock Hyrax called baby Rhino (they are kept in an enclosure within the rhino house)
Serval called baby cheetah
Chimps called Gorilla
Tortoises called turtles
White-faced Scops owls are baby owls


Our zoo is African specialist which is very obvious in our zoo's name Africa Alive, yet several of our visitor feedback forms have people asking why we dont have, Tigers, Pandas, Kangaroos, Koala, bears, but Tigers is the most popular demand.
 
I absolutely love this thread.

Said to one of my colleagues last year: Why have you shaved all the fluff off your male lions? Umm... they're lionesses......

I can think of so many more, but that is my all time favourite.
 
lambchop23 said:
Our zoo is African specialist which is very obvious in our zoo's name Africa Alive, yet several of our visitor feedback forms have people asking why we dont have, Tigers, Pandas, Kangaroos, Koala, bears, but Tigers is the most popular demand.
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To be fair the Otters are from Asia, so the question's not that far out:D
 
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karenZOO said:
I have a video somewhere of my partner getting into an arguement with a schoolteacher in front of her class at orang utan forest at Colchester Zoo.
The teacher was continually telling her class they were male and female, mainly because of the 2 males Tiga is a lot younger (approx 9 ?) and she was acting like she knew it all!
ALL he said was actually they are 2 males and pointed out that Tiga has not yet developed his male orang characteristics. She snapped back at him 'and how do you know that?' to which he shouted back 'I can bloody read and get my facts right why don't you try it' lol I walked away and left them to it :D

The best thing I have ever seen at Colchester was very recently. We followed a girl approx 4 or 5 and her elderly grandparents to the Sun bears.

The nan turned to her and said 'now do you think they are Paddington or pooh bears?'
The girl without even looking away from the bears said 'gran they are sun bears, they are called that because of the orange shape on their chests, they come from ..... and eat...... etc'

I very nearly clapped :p the look on the grannies faces was classic. I wish we had stalked them around the zoo :eek:
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HAHAHAHA It shows you how little that even the teachers know!!:D
 
I think some zoos can be accused of perpetuating common myths. Take Monkey World, in Dorset, for example. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a splendid place. What I can't stand about it is its name. Yes, I know it does have monkeys and lots of them, but it also has prosimians (in the form of lemurs) and, in particular, it is a world famous sanctuary for chimpanzees and orang-utans. How can we expect the general public to realise that lemurs, chimps and orangs are NOT monkeys when they are all on show at a place calling itself Monkey World?
 
Female camels have two humps, males have one ( or possibly the other way round ), this 'fact' was disputed by the accompanying adult but what do parents know, the child clearly wasn't convinced.
 
I enjoyed one dad looking at the gorillas at twycross the other day - these particular gorillas were bright orange :rolleyes:
 
I hate to necropsy a thread, but I haven't been in in a while and I have some stuff to add ;)

Rhino Iguana = Chameleon
(This one always gets me, because it has the most prominently displayed sign in the whole wing, yet people always call it something other than "Iguana"... Monitor, Skink, Gecko... a 3' Gecko...? :o )

Domestic Rabit = Guinea Pig

I heard this one second hand:
Tortoise = "what's that thing on its back??"
(I guess they thought it was a Lizard with a helmet glued to its back) :D
 
I heard an interesting one at the guinea baboon exhibit.

Child (maybe 5?): Look mommy, a baboon

Mother: No, thats a monkey

:(
 
Heard this comment between a group of people from Liverpool at Chester Zoo the other weekend,"where are the Hippo's",other person after looking at the map"They don't have any",the first person in reply"Well they should have they are a ZOO".
 
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