Misidentified Animals

[Dr. Wolverine]

Red Breasted Flycatcher being called a Warbling White Eye by a passing child.

 

[Cassidy Casuar]

Overheard during my most recent visit to Wellington Zoo: Agouti = Rat-Pig.

You know what, this was nowhere near as annoying as what I heard during my visit to Wellington Zoo earlier this week. A group of kids ran up to the agoutis' enclosure, and once the kids saw the agoutis, the kids began loudly chanting, "CAPYBARA, CAPYBARA, CAPYBARA!".

 

[ramsayi]

You know what, this was nowhere near as annoying as what I heard during my visit to Wellington Zoo earlier this week. A group of kids ran up to the agoutis' enclosure, and once the kids saw the agoutis, the kids began loudly chanting, "CAPYBARA, CAPYBARA, CAPYBARA!".

i saw people do this to! a lady with a capybara shirt and bag was cooing over the agouti saying it was a cute capybara

 

[Northwest_FIsh_Keeping]

Maybe I skipped over it but I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Sturgeon = Shark", that's the one I definitely hear the most and gets to me the most. If they're in a Saltwater exhibit, sure I can get how easy it is to mix up to the average visitor, but the amount of times where they're in a Freshwater river style exhibit and I still hear it, makes me side-eye a bit haha. Especially doesn't help when the Sturgeons are bigger than the actual sharks that are in the same exhibit (here at Seattle our White Sturgeon and I'm pretty sure Green Sturgeon are larger than the Spiny Dogfish, also more active).
Other pretty funny ones I've heard a lot:
Bowmouth Guitarfish = "Shark" (I mean technically their other name is the Shark Ray but you know, they're truly rays)
Eagle Rays = "Manta Ray"
Eagle Rays = "Stingray" (like the circular shaped species)
Leopard Whipray = "Manta Ray" (I have no idea how)
Gunnels = "Eels" (I can understand the mix up)
Grunt Sculpins = "Gobies"
Seadragons = "Seahorses"
Cuttlefish = "Squids"
Pipefish = "Seahorses"
Shrimpfish = "Seahorses"
Various flowy looking corals = "Anemones"
Anemones = "Corals"
Pacific Spiny Lumpsuckers = "Pufferfish" or more commonly, "baby Pufferfish"
River Otters = "Sea otters"
Puffins = "Penguins"
Snowy Plover = "Pigeon"

Overheard someone call a Green Sea Turtle a "Tortoise" at a different aquarium. There's a lot more but you get the idea

 

[NMM]

What about different species sharing an exhibit being mistaken as adults and young? I heard that today about the addax and dorcas gazelles at Marwell.

 

[Kharzo]

I have also heard some interesting things such as:
A Pallas cat being called a monkey and later the same day another person called the red panda a monkey as well.
Some woman telling her child that a pine marten was a mouse (the distance between them and the marten was literally a few centimeters).
A few days ago some people called a Garnett's greater galago a fox.
And then there is, of course, the okapi. I have heard people call it a giraffe, a zebra, a donkey, a horse, an antelope or a deer.

 

[Velas]

Here's some that I've heard before:

Greater rheas being called Ostriches
Green iguana being called Chameleons
A Chimpanzee being called a Gorilla by some visitors in my local zoo, with the identification sign right in front of them
Lesser grisons being called Rats, Otters, Weasels, Moles and Meerkats
Fallow deer being called a Gazelle
Red deer being called a Reindeer

 

[DaLilFishie]

Eagle Rays = "Manta Ray"
Eagle Rays = "Stingray" (like the circular shaped species)
Leopard Whipray = "Manta Ray" (I have no idea how)

I get the feeling that few people actually know what the difference is between a manta ray and a stingray is... I've heard Bluespotted Ribbontail Rays (Taeniura lymma) called 'manta rays' by visitors at the Cairns Aquarium on more than one occasion.

 

[merlin]

Yesterday I overheard some interesting things at Ostrava zoo...
There was a woman pointing at the Vietnamese sika deer claiming it's a kangaroo and she didn't believe her child it was actually a deer.
Another woman called the the binturong "a kitty".

 

[Dassie rat]

Another woman called the the binturong "a kitty".

The binturong is sometimes called a 'bear cat'

 

[merlin]

The binturong is sometimes called a 'bear cat'

I know, but not in the czech language though.

 

[Conor McGarry]

I've herd people call...
A takin a Bear, Buffalo and Mountain Goat
A Cougar, a lion
Canada Lynx, Bobcat, Cougar, House cat
Sand Cat, House cat
Polar Bear= albino brown bear
Cheetah, Leopard, Jaguar
Jaguar, Cheetah, Leopard
Leopard= Cheetah, Jaguar
African Wild Dog= Hyena, Coyote, Wolf
Llama= Camel

 

[Conor McGarry]

My local zoo has an exhibit with cotton top tamarins. Once, as I was walking by, I overheard a mom with her child looking at the exhibit. The kid pointed at one of the tamarins and said 'monkey!' The mom said 'no, that's not a monkey, that's a sloth.'

imagen a 8 year old correcting a grown woman and actually being right lol

 

[Conor McGarry]

Red forest duikers being called baby okapis

Surprised they even know what an okapi is, I've herd Giraffe, Zebra, Antelope, llama, and Camel

 

[British explorer]

Today I heard a child call an aradillo a cockroach.

 

[merlin]

imagen a 8 year old correcting a grown woman and actually being right lol

That's actually something I see pretty often in zoos.

 

[NMM]

I agree. I think the amount the average adult's knowledge about wildlife is quite poor and it is certainly possible for even a pre-school toddler with a keen interest to surpass it.

I don't think it is right though to use this thread to laugh at mistakes that young children have made. Adults and teenagers are fair game though. They should know better, or they can read the signs to educate themselves if they don't know.

 

[merlin]

I just remembered a woman in Prague, who called the tasmanian devils "rats" (not as an insult), although there are signs everywhere...

 

[Local_Shark]

At the Aquarium of the Pacific as a kid, I couldn’t go a single visit without someone referring to Big Guy the sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) as “the great white!!” lol. I always used to tell them “They’re related, like cousins, but he’s not one.” Unfortunately he’s not there any longer, and he’s much missed. Then there’s the reticulate whiptail ray (Himantura uarnak), who like @Northwest_FIsh_Keeping mentioned with his own whiptail ray, always gets “the manta ray!”

 

[Moorhunhe]

Yesterday at Hamerton, an adult kept calling the Civet 'look it's a monkey' to their little child.