Misidentified Animals

I have heard many people make mistakes but for example:
Rhea=Ostrich
Meerkat=Lemur
Meerkat=Otter
Lemur=Racoon
Marten=Otter
Tiger=Lion
King snake=Black mamba
Marmoset=Baby monkey
Lynx=Tiger
 
I was looking at a picture of a ring tailed lemur and this guy asked me “why are you looking at a picture of a skunk?” I gave him an annoyed look and he asked me “Is that a monkey or something?” I told him that it was a ring tailed lemur, and he had ABSOLUTELY no idea what that is.
 
It has been months since Brevard zoo has obtained their chital/axis deer Peach but they are still calling her a fallow deer. It’s quite amusing to see actually.
 
Best one was an eldery woman with her (i suppose) grandchild at the outdoor okapi exhibit. There was a sign about the birth of a young okapi and how it was inside the stable with the mother and not yet visibel for public.
The woman clearly had read the sign as she was telling the child about the birth of a young okapi.
‘Look there is the mother okapi with the foals’, she told the kid, pointing at the male okapi and a couple of red duikers…
 
I just visited Ueno and EVERY SINGLE VISITOR that passed the Chinese pangolin called it an armadillo. I did not hear ONE person actually say pangolin. Even my dad who I visited the zoo with me called it an armadillo. Even people that read the signage assumed that pangolins are a type of armadillo.
 
mal124 said:
How do you tell the two apart? I barely see a difference myself haha
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Male Chital & Fallow are easy to differentiate as chital have straight pointed antlers whilst fallow have more palmate. Colour is also an indicator with Fallow's normal colouration being lighter and fallow also come in various shades which chital do not. Chital also seem to have a white patch of fur on their necks.
 
I saw an interesting one today in Beale Wildlife Park's nocturnal house.

They have naked mole rats and gray mouse lemurs next to each other. One person looked at the sign for the mouse lemurs, then pointed at the mole rats and told their companion that those were lemurs. Admittedly the sign for the mouse lemurs was between the two enclosures, but surely the picture must have given a clue...
 
I commonly will hear people prefer to the scarbet ibis as a flamingo even when its name is clearly displayed on signs in the bird free flight aviary
 
Recently heard one small child tell another that a crowned lemur was a golden bamboo lemur. It really caught me off guard, because every other time I've heard an animal being misidentified it was for a much more well known alternative, not for another comparably "obscure" species. I was a bit impressed. Wonder if that kid was just an animal nerd on their own right, or parroting something an animal nerd parrot had taught them.
 
biggest_dreamer said:
Recently heard one small child tell another that a crowned lemur was a golden bamboo lemur. It really caught me off guard, because every other time I've heard an animal being misidentified it was for a much more well known alternative, not for another comparably "obscure" species. I was a bit impressed. Wonder if that kid was just an animal nerd on their own right, or parroting something an animal nerd parrot had taught them.
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Could very well be a rising animal nerd. I have a scrapbook from when I was twelve years old and so, and includes a zoo photo of a Lady Ross' turaco that I incorrectly labeled as a violet turaco. Violet turaco was the species my local zoo had at the time, so I guess I saw a very similar species at a different zoo and just incorrectly identified it to the one I was familiar with, even though turacos aren't exactly well-known.
 
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