Stereotypical Species
- Thread starter ZPA
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When people think of lemurs, they think of Ring tailed lemurs.
However, stereotypical species is a stretch, since lots of people on earth dont really know a lot of animal species. For instance when you ask them whats your favorite species of Raccoon, they probably wont even realize that there are different species of Raccoon. Same with Lions and penguins, a large majority of human beings dont really know that many species, so I wouldn't really call it stereotypical. When I was really young I didn't know what favorite species of skate, I plainly just didn't realize that there was different species of skates. I hope this doesn't spark any controversy, I just plainly disagree with the whole, ¨Stereotypical species¨.
However, stereotypical species is a stretch, since lots of people on earth dont really know a lot of animal species. For instance when you ask them whats your favorite species of Raccoon, they probably wont even realize that there are different species of Raccoon. Same with Lions and penguins, a large majority of human beings dont really know that many species, so I wouldn't really call it stereotypical. When I was really young I didn't know what favorite species of skate, I plainly just didn't realize that there was different species of skates. I hope this doesn't spark any controversy, I just plainly disagree with the whole, ¨Stereotypical species¨.
Gorillas as western lowland gorillas, dolphins as bottlenose dolphins, hippos as Nile hippos, & wolfs as grey wolfs.
Gray wolfs can also be simply referred to as Wolfs, it is actually a quite common name used by people. And not counting Pygmy hippos, there is really only species of Hippopotamus, not regarding the subspecies.
Thank you for the information.
I agree with many people thinking of the 'great white shark' when they think of sharks. I wonder if anyone would say 'ocellaris clownfish' if asked to name a marine bony fish.
They wouldn’t know the name, they’d just say “Nemo”
I realise that Nemo made clownfish more popular, but I just wonder if people would think of a clownfish if someone asked about stereotypic marine bony fish. In the UK, perhaps cod would be mentioned more often.
Most people may not be very aware of species diversity, but it's still pretty common for a certain species to pop into their head, even if it's because it's the only species that they're familiar with. Great white sharks and bald eagles (in the US) are the archetypes for their groups, but I think most people are aware that other species exist. (hammerheads are well-known)
I think where things get iffy is when the "stereotypical species" is a creature that doesn't even exist, an inaccurate version of the animal they're picturing or an amalgam of multiple species. (hell, maybe a different species altogether. I bet a lot of people see alligators and crocodiles as interchangeable) Like, a lot of whales in cartoons look like sperm whales with ventral grooves. And if they have teeth, it's on the upper and lower jaws.
There's a crazy golf course near my home. The 'sperm whale' has teeth in both jaws. The pub on the opposite side of the road had a sign showing a sperm whale, but this had teeth in the lower jaw only.
I would have an extreme example on offer from my country. Due to a hugely popular hit song from 1960s named "Pták rosomák" of local pop band Olympic still 99,9% of Czech people think that wolverines are birds. Pták = bird, rosomák = wolverine. They don´t have an exact idea how such bird should look like, but expect something like a crow. They get a nice surprise when they meet a real wolverine in a zoo.
It's just as well that Alfred Hitchcock didn't use wolverines in 'The Birds'.
Thanks for the information, and you do prove a point. To elaborate more, some people may not realize what there looking at at a zoo. So many people have refused to look at the sign that explicitly says they are not monkeys at the top of sign, but so many people still think gibbons are monkeys. And I have had cases where people kept calling tapirs pigs, now matter how many times I tried to tell them.
For alligators its American Alligators and Crocodiles it's Saltwater Crocodiles
If I ask someone who doesn't know much about animals to name a species of crocodile, they will say Nile 100% of the time. I've actually tried this.
Most lizards are called either: "gecko," "iguana," or just "lizard."
Lol for real, like, why ya'll even at the zoo? I hear African wild dogs get called "hyenas" a lot.
I also remember a quiz where a question was "Which family does the hyena belong to?" The answer was "The dog family." I was not happy. It was just as well that my shirt didn't tear open.