Things people do that irritate you when you go to the zoo? #2

The thing that REALLY irritates me is when I hear the words " animals and birds/reptiles " ,what are birds and reptiles if they are not animals? It's bad enough when non zoo professionals say it but, when keepers and/or education staff utter these words, I have to say something. It's so unprofessional!
 
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Strathmorezoo said:
The thing that REALLY irritates me is when I hear the words " animals and birds/reptiles " ,what are birds and reptiles if they are not animals? It's bad enough when non zoo professionals say it but, when keepers and/or education staff utter these words, I have to say something. It's so unprofessional!
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I think a lot of it comes down to people correlating the words "animal" and "mammal" , I've heard stuff like "bugs aren't animals" at a few points in my life, I think mainly because those two words sound the same?
 
I hated when guests attempted to feed and touch the animals when they're clearly aren't allowed too, especially parents who allow and even encourage their kids to do so.

In some cases, here in Indonesia, one of the conclusion of guests after visiting and learning in an zoo or aquaria is not "wow, I learned of a new species and new stuffs today" or "wow, we really do need to protect this species from harm", but "wow, I need to own one of these as pets". This obviously lead to death, neglect, and some animals not being properly taken care off.
 
Pretty standard, but anyone calling out to the animals irks me. The last time I went to the North Carolina Zoo I heard just about every guest trying to "roar" at the Mekita the lioness and shout out her name until she turned her head. Hearing kids howl at the red wolf exhibit was frustrating but I can't be all that mad at children getting excited. Still, I wish more parents would try and keep their kids calm and non-disruptive during their trip.

... At the same time, it's mortifying to see parents screaming at their children in the zoo. It always happens. A kid being over-excited at the zoo is annoying but understandable, but a parent yelling at, roughly grabbing, or even hitting their child is horrible. An adult should know better than to berate or put their hands on someone to teach them manners.
 
Canis Rufus said:
Still, I wish more parents would try and keep their kids calm and non-disruptive during their trip.
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So far I've been to 3 zoos in Czechia during my trip, some visited for multiple times, here it's a balance between children being loud (but not screaming) when they see an animal and the parents telling them it's a cool animal - usually the children will then lower their voice when and if it scares the animal away - and parents telling the kids to lower their voice so they can see the animals better.
I have no idea or data about how usual or average this behaviour is, but it's been nice to see it; I also am a bit annoyed by children's loud voices in zoos, but as the Ottomans said: "if the back of your Mosque is not crying, there is no future for it" (not word for word but it gets the point).
So it is for zoos.
 
I saw another example of a parent being ignorant when answering their child's question today.

At the Chacoan maras at Beale Wildlife Park a boy asked their Dad where they were from. Given that the species is called Chacoan, he was stood next to a sign with a big picture of South America on it that also told you it was from South America, they were in a part of the wildlife park called The Pampas Walk and the other nearby animals were South American species, what do you think the reply was?

Answer - Kenya.
 
I find that the grownups are less well-behaved than the children in most cases. I can redirect a kid's focus pretty easily most of the time. But the adults are harder to wrangle. The folks who come up to an exhibit and start making their badly executed version of "monkey" calls are a personal pet peeve. Like nails on a chalkboard.
 
Earlier this year during a busy day at Wellington Zoo, two of the kangaroos in the Australian walk-through enclosure were having a fight while standing on the dirt right next to the concrete walkway. There is no barrier to keep the kangaroos from going onto the concrete. A kid who was watching the kangaroos loudly asked their parent, “Wait, can they jump from there to here?”. The alternative, presumably, being that an invisible force field was preventing the kangaroos from jumping onto the concrete walkway.
 
Selfie parents:

A great ape or big cat is approaching the glass and suddenly a parent/caregiver (I hate to generalise, but usually a Millennial) cries out in a sing-song voice, “Cmon guys, let’s get a photo of you with the lion/tiger/big monkey!” and proceeds to shove any number of children in their care up to the glass to get a photo of them with the animal in question.

99% of the time the kid is indifferent to both the animal and having its photo taken; and was perfectly happy minding its own business somewhere that was out of the way of everyone else.

As a parent, I take photos of my kids when we visit zoos (my favourite is a giraffe height comparison, which my sons find interesting to compare their height from year to year); or perhaps one of them with the Savannah exhibit in the background; but I like to feel I’m capable of doing so without annoying those around me.
 
This is certainly not something that happens often, and i am afraid it does not exactly meet the the subject of this thread, but I couldn't find any other appropriate thread so I'm posting it here.
At my local zoo, the hippos used to live in a deep concrete pit, u til about 6 years ago when they were moved to a 'new' series of enclosures.
This 'new' series of enclosures are just as bad as the old one, consisting of three concrete paddocks with a small sheltered area at the back and a small pool at the front, with ecah paddock housing about 2 hippos.
Now there is a fairly big pond right behind these enclosures which is unused and has been so for as long as I can remember.
I asked a volunteer( or it may have been an employee), on one of my visits as to why they did not just adapt the pond and its surrounding land to make a quite good enclosure for the hippos.
The answer I got was that this was not done, as the point of zoos was to create entirely new artificial habitats for animals, and not using the existing landscape to create enclosures.
Like, what?
 
I'm from Czechia and there's currently a foot-and-mouth disease epidemy in Slovakia (and other european countries), not so far from the czech borders, which means there are various measures going on currently. Those include that people can't go and pet the domestic animals like goats, sheeps or pigs and that there's sometimes a warning tape around the exhibit, preventing people from getting too close to the animals.
I've been to Ostrava on Thursday and there was a warning tape at the Visayan warty pig exhibit. Though, I still managed to spot a mother and son, who just walked past the tape and threw something in the exhibit - I guess it was supposed to be food, but honestly, it kind of looked like rocks to me and I would not be surprised if it was either, since I've been seeing all kinds of things in the czech zoos lately... Not to mention that I've been to Ostrava twice this year so far and both times I've seen people throwing something into the Visayan pigs enclosure. There's a children's zoo literally not so far from it, why not just go there?!
But honestly, I just don't get it. There are signs and warning tapes everywhere around the zoo, they post about it almost everyday, but there are still a bit too many people who straight up ignore it.
 
Went to Dudley Zoo on Easter day. And the people were just appalling throughout the entire day.
(and it wasn't even super busy)

This one really stood out though, once we got to the Lynx, a guy (older adult) was daring a girl/woman (they were together with a group of people, she looked at least 18 to me, maybe even older).
At the enclosure, there are some plants, I'm not sure if it's bamboo actually, but they are like long sticks, so it could have been, I wasn't really paying that much attention to what type of foliage, lol.

*Lynx Dakota lying next to the fence*

Guy: Go on, poke it with that
Girl: *takes the plant-stick* Yeah alright, I will
Me: Giving her the look ...
Girl: Looking back at me laughing and giggling
Guy: Go on, I dare you
Girl: Yeah, in a minute
My boyfriend: How about you don't ?!!
Me: Looking at girl again while saying "what are you doing ??"
Girl: Looking at me all giggly and as if to say "what you looking at then ??"

She kept looking towards the Lynx, and clearly waiting for us to leave, but I kept getting closer to her, so she couldn't reach the Lynx at all, me "pretending to get a better spot for a picture"

And then she said it once again to the guy "I'm gonna do it, hang on" all the while having that plant ready to poke at the Lynx.
A keeper we know was next to the enclosure preparing food, I was just about to call for him as she didn't seem to want to let it go, and then she figured out we weren't leaving and the entire group left.

I love seeing the animals, but some days I just can't deal with it at all ...
 
Moorhunhe said:
Went to Dudley Zoo on Easter day. And the people were just appalling throughout the entire day.
(and it wasn't even super busy)

This one really stood out though, once we got to the Lynx, a guy (older adult) was daring a girl/woman (they were together with a group of people, she looked at least 18 to me, maybe even older).
At the enclosure, there are some plants, I'm not sure if it's bamboo actually, but they are like long sticks, so it could have been, I wasn't really paying that much attention to what type of foliage, lol.

*Lynx Dakota lying next to the fence*

Guy: Go on, poke it with that
Girl: *takes the plant-stick* Yeah alright, I will
Me: Giving her the look ...
Girl: Looking back at me laughing and giggling
Guy: Go on, I dare you
Girl: Yeah, in a minute
My boyfriend: How about you don't ?!!
Me: Looking at girl again while saying "what are you doing ??"
Girl: Looking at me all giggly and as if to say "what you looking at then ??"

She kept looking towards the Lynx, and clearly waiting for us to leave, but I kept getting closer to her, so she couldn't reach the Lynx at all, me "pretending to get a better spot for a picture"

And then she said it once again to the guy "I'm gonna do it, hang on" all the while having that plant ready to poke at the Lynx.
A keeper we know was next to the enclosure preparing food, I was just about to call for him as she didn't seem to want to let it go, and then she figured out we weren't leaving and the entire group left.

I love seeing the animals, but some days I just can't deal with it at all ...
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Did you notice any police patrolling, only, normally the police used to have a presence during bank Holidays, to try and curtail such behaviour. I sometimes wonder if some members of the public should be on the other side of the enclosure !
 
Strathmorezoo said:
Did you notice any police patrolling, only, normally the police used to have a presence during bank Holidays, to try and curtail such behaviour. I sometimes wonder if some members of the public should be on the other side of the enclosure !
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No, I've never seen police walking around Dudley Zoo.
 
Moorhunhe said:
Went to Dudley Zoo on Easter day. And the people were just appalling throughout the entire day.
(and it wasn't even super busy)

This one really stood out though, once we got to the Lynx, a guy (older adult) was daring a girl/woman (they were together with a group of people, she looked at least 18 to me, maybe even older).
At the enclosure, there are some plants, I'm not sure if it's bamboo actually, but they are like long sticks, so it could have been, I wasn't really paying that much attention to what type of foliage, lol.

*Lynx Dakota lying next to the fence*

Guy: Go on, poke it with that
Girl: *takes the plant-stick* Yeah alright, I will
Me: Giving her the look ...
Girl: Looking back at me laughing and giggling
Guy: Go on, I dare you
Girl: Yeah, in a minute
My boyfriend: How about you don't ?!!
Me: Looking at girl again while saying "what are you doing ??"
Girl: Looking at me all giggly and as if to say "what you looking at then ??"

She kept looking towards the Lynx, and clearly waiting for us to leave, but I kept getting closer to her, so she couldn't reach the Lynx at all, me "pretending to get a better spot for a picture"

And then she said it once again to the guy "I'm gonna do it, hang on" all the while having that plant ready to poke at the Lynx.
A keeper we know was next to the enclosure preparing food, I was just about to call for him as she didn't seem to want to let it go, and then she figured out we weren't leaving and the entire group left.

I love seeing the animals, but some days I just can't deal with it at all ...
Click to expand...

Awful behaviour. I have no clue what comes over some people.

A small boy threw a stone at a duck at the lake at CWP today (didn't hit it) and might have lead to this thread but there was swift action by (guess) father - a firm talking to and a lecture on the importance of ducks and in the end the boy had to apologise to the duck which he did (by that time it was a different duck but it's the thought that counts) so at least there is hope out there!
 
Moorhunhe said:
Went to Dudley Zoo on Easter day. And the people were just appalling throughout the entire day.
(and it wasn't even super busy)

This one really stood out though, once we got to the Lynx, a guy (older adult) was daring a girl/woman (they were together with a group of people, she looked at least 18 to me, maybe even older).
At the enclosure, there are some plants, I'm not sure if it's bamboo actually, but they are like long sticks, so it could have been, I wasn't really paying that much attention to what type of foliage, lol.

*Lynx Dakota lying next to the fence*

Guy: Go on, poke it with that
Girl: *takes the plant-stick* Yeah alright, I will
Me: Giving her the look ...
Girl: Looking back at me laughing and giggling
Guy: Go on, I dare you
Girl: Yeah, in a minute
My boyfriend: How about you don't ?!!
Me: Looking at girl again while saying "what are you doing ??"
Girl: Looking at me all giggly and as if to say "what you looking at then ??"

She kept looking towards the Lynx, and clearly waiting for us to leave, but I kept getting closer to her, so she couldn't reach the Lynx at all, me "pretending to get a better spot for a picture"

And then she said it once again to the guy "I'm gonna do it, hang on" all the while having that plant ready to poke at the Lynx.
A keeper we know was next to the enclosure preparing food, I was just about to call for him as she didn't seem to want to let it go, and then she figured out we weren't leaving and the entire group left.

I love seeing the animals, but some days I just can't deal with it at all ...
Click to expand...

Well done for calling this out.

Would also note I’ve never seen the old bill at any zoo.
 
On my visit to Hunter Valley Wildlife Park on Monday, there were perhaps 5 or 6 children chasing a single kangaroo around the walkthrough, and when the poor animal eventually stopped, it was surrounded by all the children and touched roughly all over its body. Worse still, their parents were not only failing to stop this depraved behaviour, but actively encouraging it! They (parents and children) then proceeded to enter the animal rest area. Needless to say, the parents were soon severely reprimanded by me before I informed a keeper of their actions. While my actions did ensure that the despicable behaviour of these particular people were ceased (the keeper stayed in the exhibit until that group had left) it put a damper on my entire visit.
 
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