People Breaking the Rules at Zoos

I talked about this in a different thread, but I feel like I've seen most of the worst zoo behavior at the Kansas City Zoo. I'm not sure what it is about that particular zoo but I have so many stories of straight up disrespectful conduct by visitors to the animals and the facility. I've seen a grown adult man sticking his hands into the mesh of the orangutan exhibit to shake hands with the baby that was hanging from said mesh. I've seen people trying to feed monkeys stuff like gummy fruit snacks through the mesh. One time there was a lady in the Tropics building who insisted on loudly pounding her fists on the glass of every inactive animal, often paired with unintelligible screaming. Possibly the one that takes the cake is the kid who kept dangling and swinging his giant monkey stuffed animal into the antelope enclosure. For context it's structured so the visitors walk on a elevated path and overlook the animals from above. The dad, instead of trying to get the kid to stop, seemed entertained and was actively encouraging the behavior. I will say on my more recent trips to this zoo I haven't seen a whole lot of bad behavior, so I'm not sure what's changed but I sure am in favor of it.
 
Last month I saw a guy at the Lehigh Valley Zoo hop a wooden fence to get a picture of the camels through their chain link fence.
At ZooAmerica a few years ago, a kid dropped their sippy cup into the prairie dog exhibit and a bystander jumped in to retrieve it. I have photos of both.
 
I saw a few pretty egregious examples in the car safari yesterday at Safaripark Beekse Bergen.

Although signage explicetely states that car windows have to be kept closed at all times, despite that also being repeated verbally by staff at the entrance to the car safari and visitors also being handed a sign with the rules to mandatorily hang on their rear-view mirror, I still saw several cars driving around with their windows open.

Even worse I saw some people hanging out of windows with their arms and or head, and a kid even also with his torso, as well as touching dromedary camels standing on or close to the road. One car started doing this, then several more also did it. The dromedary camels seemed quite interested and quite confidently walked between the cars, thereby also creating a small traffic jam. The situation lasted for about ten minutes or so before the dromedaries walked off.

I did not see any feeding, although I wouldn't be too surprised if a cookie or slice of bread was snagged somewhere in all this.

Although these dromedaries seemed quite docile, I guess visitors don't realize they are not to be messed with. Also having these animals mere centimeters away from the car feels uneasy to me.

With regards to all these idiots, this is just wilful, ignorant and obstinate rule-breaking rather than unawareness. And also a lack of common sense. It also greatly saddens and concerns me that these people are learning this idiocy to their children and putting their children at risk with their recklessness. It is idiots like these that might eventually doom the car safari at Beekse Bergen...
 
KevinB said:
I saw a few pretty egregious examples in the car safari yesterday at Safaripark Beekse Bergen.

Although signage explicetely states that car windows have to be kept closed at all times, despite that also being repeated verbally by staff at the entrance to the car safari and visitors also being handed a sign with the rules to mandatorily hang on their rear-view mirror, I still saw several cars driving around with their windows open.

Even worse I saw some people hanging out of windows with their arms and or head, and a kid even also with his torso, as well as touching dromedary camels standing on or close to the road. One car started doing this, then several more also did it. The dromedary camels seemed quite interested and quite confidently walked between the cars, thereby also creating a small traffic jam. The situation lasted for about ten minutes or so before the dromedaries walked off.

I did not see any feeding, although I wouldn't be too surprised if a cookie or slice of bread was snagged somewhere in all this.

Although these dromedaries seemed quite docile, I guess visitors don't realize they are not to be messed with. Also having these animals mere centimeters away from the car feels uneasy to me.

With regards to all these idiots, this is just wilful, ignorant and obstinate rule-breaking rather than unawareness. And also a lack of common sense. It also greatly saddens and concerns me that these people are learning this idiocy to their children and putting their children at risk with their recklessness. It is idiots like these that might eventually doom the car safari at Beekse Bergen...
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Drive-through safaris are an interesting mix of unique experience and safety hazard. Some of them encourage the animals to be right up next to the cars with feed you can buy and other places you're not supposed to roll down the windows at all. There's definitely no shortage of clips on YouTube regarding both minor and major incidents at such places though.
 
Great Argus said:
Drive-through safaris are an interesting mix of unique experience and safety hazard. Some of them encourage the animals to be right up next to the cars with feed you can buy and other places you're not supposed to roll down the windows at all. There's definitely no shortage of clips on YouTube regarding both minor and major incidents at such places though.
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As they say, you can't fix stupid - and nor can you fix people who think they are above the rules. Unfortunately that kind of attitude seems to have become more common during the last few years.

Beekse Bergen generally does not encourage animals to come up to the road, aside from having feeding stations near it, and does not allow feeding. I think Beekse Bergen does it fairly right - but some visitors definitely do not act by the rules. As I explained they try their best to avoid and discourage situations like the ones I described, but you just can't control things fully. And I guess giving current issues with staffing and salary costs, hiring more staff to do surveillance would be difficult, and even that would likely not fully work.
 
KevinB said:
As they say, you can't fix stupid - and nor can you fix people who think they are above the rules.
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Indeed not - the woman who has twice crossed barriers at Bronx is an example of that. Unfortunately such incidents can end up ruining experiences for the rest of us.
 
An event that hasn’t been mentioned here was the time two adolescents attempted to harpoon and throw bricks at an Orca called cuddles in the dead of night at Dudley zoo. The vandals were never caught as far as I know, but the orca got out unharmed apparently.
 
Randomname0183 said:
An event that hasn’t been mentioned here was the time two adolescents attempted to harpoon and throw bricks at an Orca called cuddles in the dead of night at Dudley zoo. The vandals were never caught as far as I know, but the orca got out unharmed apparently.
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Sandy an orca that used to live at the Seattle Marine Aqaurium, had an incident where three young boys attacked her and plunged a metal rod in her blowhole. Luckily, she survived, and was later sent on to Seaworld San Diego.
 
At Queens Zoo, people were dropping slices of eggplant in the elk enclosure and the elk thankfully were not interested in it. I also saw a child crossing several barriers while his mother laughed and very jokingly told him to stop or the animals would eat him. Thankfully, these were secondary barriers that had additional protection beyond them.

At Central Park Zoo, every time I visit, without fail, there are people trying to feed/pet the swans in the pond behind the red panda exhibit.

At Bronx Zoo, I no longer visit the mouse house because of how people beat the glass with their fists (not tap, not slap, quite literlaly beat the glass to the point where the sound echoes and I am concerned it will break) and also how they constantly shine their flashlights into the nocturnal exhibits. I also see children frquently climb the rocks in front of the middle snow leopard viewing to tap the glass and disrupt the cubs when there is a large barrier intended to keep people distanced from the glass. Their parents say nothing. Also saw a child once try to poke the male nyala with a stick.
 
Mary said:
At Queens Zoo, people were dropping slices of eggplant in the elk enclosure and the elk thankfully were not interested in it. I also saw a child crossing several barriers while his mother laughed and very jokingly told him to stop or the animals would eat him. Thankfully, these were secondary barriers that had additional protection beyond them.

At Central Park Zoo, every time I visit, without fail, there are people trying to feed/pet the swans in the pond behind the red panda exhibit.

At Bronx Zoo, I no longer visit the mouse house because of how people beat the glass with their fists (not tap, not slap, quite literlaly beat the glass to the point where the sound echoes and I am concerned it will break) and also how they constantly shine their flashlights into the nocturnal exhibits. I also see children frquently climb the rocks in front of the middle snow leopard viewing to tap the glass and disrupt the cubs when there is a large barrier intended to keep people distanced from the glass. Their parents say nothing. Also saw a child once try to poke the male nyala with a stick.
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When I visited the Mouse House at the Bronx Zoo it was also horrible with people banging on the glass and screaming like a bunch of banshees! They ought to have stricter security measures and have those unruly jerks expelled! :mad:
 
Continuing in the Bronx, a few months back I saw a child splashing Falcated Ducks in the World of Birds. What makes it worse is the fact that she was being boosted up by her mother :mad:
 
KiwiBirb said:
Continuing in the Bronx, a few months back I saw a child splashing Falcated Ducks in the World of Birds. What makes it worse is the fact that she was being boosted up by her mother :mad:
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From my experience, if you approach them nicely and explain why it would bother the animal, people will generally stop. Especially if you can offer alternatives instead, though that's not always the case (like if they're trying to get an animal to move). As an example, when kids are trying to feed animals, I'll explain why diet is important to them and how if the food makes the animal sick, the keepers won't know why, combined with something about they wouldn't want a random stranger giving their child something. If the zoo has giraffe or ray feeding or something, I'll then suggest they go try that as an experience.
 
TinoPup said:
From my experience, if you approach them nicely and explain why it would bother the animal, people will generally stop. Especially if you can offer alternatives instead, though that's not always the case (like if they're trying to get an animal to move). As an example, when kids are trying to feed animals, I'll explain why diet is important to them and how if the food makes the animal sick, the keepers won't know why, combined with something about they wouldn't want a random stranger giving their child something. If the zoo has giraffe or ray feeding or something, I'll then suggest they go try that as an experience.
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There was another family there at the time a fortunately told the kid (but mostly the mother) to stop. I’m unfortunately very socially awkward and terrible with situations like this, however I’ve been trying to work on that was my New Year’s resolution.
 
TinoPup said:
From my experience, if you approach them nicely and explain why it would bother the animal, people will generally stop. Especially if you can offer alternatives instead, though that's not always the case (like if they're trying to get an animal to move). As an example, when kids are trying to feed animals, I'll explain why diet is important to them and how if the food makes the animal sick, the keepers won't know why, combined with something about they wouldn't want a random stranger giving their child something. If the zoo has giraffe or ray feeding or something, I'll then suggest they go try that as an experience.
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I would say that works 60% of the time. But the other 40% people tell me to mind my own business or, worse yet on only two occasions so far in my life, get violent.
 
JigerofLemuria said:
I would say that works 60% of the time. But the other 40% people tell me to mind my own business or, worse yet on only two occasions so far in my life, get violent.
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I'm sorry people have gotten violent with you :( For me it's worked every time I've done it. Either they respond in some positive manner, or they think I'm annoying and move away from me, in which case the action is still stopped (though temporarily).
 
Hello.
Well, I've seen the usual: adults trying to pet parrots in a walkthrough aviary (Rio de Janeiro), people trying to touch various different species of animals through bars or grids (various places), screaming (various places), littering (various places, but most notably my local zoo, where I saw a schoolgirl throwing a piece of paper up in the air (it fell in the adjacent African Savanna exhibit) and walking off).

As @KevinB said, you can't fix stupid, as people will break the rules either way. It's just become easier to notice them doing it now.

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If you count animals breaking the rules, birds have landed on me at both my local zoos (Rio (white-eyed parakeet) and Volta Redonda (cockatiel)). I believe they either liked my glasses or my hair :).
 
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