Same in the UK. Primary aged school children are not the problem, they are always supervised due to young age etc. Secondary ones aren't, they are allowed to run free in the zoo. The teachers /supervisors who come with them often treat it like time out, convening in the cafeteria until its time to usher the kids back onto the coach transport back to wherever they came from.
Things people do that irritate you when you go to the zoo? #2
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Same in the UK. Primary aged school children are not the problem, they are always supervised due to young age etc. Secondary ones aren't, they are allowed to run free in the zoo. The teachers /supervisors who come with them often treat it like time out, convening in the cafeteria until its time to usher the kids back onto the coach transport back to wherever they came from.
It's nice to hear these sorts of anecdotes, and I too have had some nice chats with teachers and students. But I remember once, when I was studying afternoon classes in uni, and I visited the zoo midweek in the morning. I stumbled upon a highschool group and... The teachers were basically bad-mouthing the zoo (In Barcelona?! NOOOO WAAAAAY!!! REEEEEAAALLY?!?!) and taking the animalist stance, and the "zoo's basement" (that fake video that turned everyone and their grandma into a frothing zoo-hater). This was the time before I had given up on mankind, so I informed them that the video was a sham and the zoo was doing great conservation work. The teacher looked at me with utter contempt and asked "Don't you have a JOB?!"
With teachers like that, no wonder this city is condemned. Sorry for the downer...
I saw a lot of this when I was at Whipsnade last year, there were lots and lots of primary groups. I actually thought they were rather sweet and charming, even when I couldn't get out of the toilets for the numbers swarming around the entrance...but secondary school children can be a very different kettle of fish. Its like in school itself, some are interested but many aren't. I do think staff shouldn't just 'disappear' on these outings, that is the main problem I think.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Completely agree!
At least here in the US, places do get a good bit of money from school groups. Doesn't really cover the amount of frustration the guest services staff deal with though much of the time.
Tamandua56
Well-Known Member
I could write for a long time about the things that annoy me (or have annoyed me) when I'm in a zoo, but I remember two instances where it was adults who depressed me.
-I was in front of the capybara enclosure at CERZA, and I heard a father say to his child: "They're wombats, rodents that make square droppings." Fortunately, the woman who was with him corrected his mistake.
But in the same place, another couple (people of a certain age) were asking questions. The man: "That's an amazing animal, what is it?"
The woman: "They look like an anteater."
I have a hard time imagining how anyone could mistake a capyabra for an anteater!!!
(The information board with the photo was very close by...)
-At the At Trégomeur Zoo (Brittany), there's a nocturnal house with cloud rats and slow lorises. A woman with her children entered the building. I heard her grumble in a low voice, "It's dark, why isn't there any light?" She quickly left because there wasn't enough light...
It doesn't really bother me, but hearing all this makes me feel rather desperate.
-I was in front of the capybara enclosure at CERZA, and I heard a father say to his child: "They're wombats, rodents that make square droppings." Fortunately, the woman who was with him corrected his mistake.
But in the same place, another couple (people of a certain age) were asking questions. The man: "That's an amazing animal, what is it?"
The woman: "They look like an anteater."
I have a hard time imagining how anyone could mistake a capyabra for an anteater!!!
(The information board with the photo was very close by...)-At the At Trégomeur Zoo (Brittany), there's a nocturnal house with cloud rats and slow lorises. A woman with her children entered the building. I heard her grumble in a low voice, "It's dark, why isn't there any light?" She quickly left because there wasn't enough light...
It doesn't really bother me, but hearing all this makes me feel rather desperate.
Samueltiger
Well-Known Member
For me is gotta be when parents or teachers calling gibbons "monkeys" and calling an African Wild Dog a "hyena",or worse calling a lemur a monkey
Taxonomically, and in most languages Gibbons are monkeys though. It is like complaining that tigers are not cat, but only big cats
Went to Akron for the first time today. Near the beginning before the group she was part of moved a different direction from me, there was a girl about my age in front of me. She was mad at the waterfowl exhibit because "THEY'RE JUST BIRDS!" She started fuming at the emperor goose exhibit. By the time we reached the white-naped cranes, she just lost it. At that point I tried to kindly and politely explain to her that they were not common, boring birds like I assumed she thought they were in the slightest and were basically all rarities. She gave me a "shut the hell up nerd" glare.
It was like meeting bizarro-me - again, she was also in her early 20s like I am but she also weirdly looked like me? It was the timeline where I found seeing Baer's pochards for the first time ever boring, I guess.
It was like meeting bizarro-me - again, she was also in her early 20s like I am but she also weirdly looked like me? It was the timeline where I found seeing Baer's pochards for the first time ever boring, I guess.
Not irritating, but some amusing misconceptions:
At the Bronx Zoo, everyone calls the Asian carp in the turtle pond and Tiger mountain "catfish." I guess because of the barbels? They might have small reference pools. When I ask them, they usually have heard of goldfish but not koi. Asian Americans are more likely to know what carp/koi are.
At Shedd Aquarium and St. Louis Zoo, kids automatically thought the Lesser Sirens were axolotls, probably because of Minecraft spreading awareness of that species. The same goes for the mudpuppy at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
I've also heard agoutis being mistaken for capybaras more than once.
At Los Angeles Zoo, a dad of Mexican descent saw the Sichuan Takin sign and jokingly said "Hey, they named an animal Tajín!" That made my day.
At the Bronx Zoo, everyone calls the Asian carp in the turtle pond and Tiger mountain "catfish." I guess because of the barbels? They might have small reference pools. When I ask them, they usually have heard of goldfish but not koi. Asian Americans are more likely to know what carp/koi are.
At Shedd Aquarium and St. Louis Zoo, kids automatically thought the Lesser Sirens were axolotls, probably because of Minecraft spreading awareness of that species. The same goes for the mudpuppy at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
I've also heard agoutis being mistaken for capybaras more than once.
At Los Angeles Zoo, a dad of Mexican descent saw the Sichuan Takin sign and jokingly said "Hey, they named an animal Tajín!" That made my day.
Osedax
Well-Known Member
This surprises me. By my experience, most Australians have heard of Koi.
They're quite popular within the pet trade in Australia, despite only being legally able to be kept in two states.
Koi carp are extremely well known in New Zealand; though most people associate them first and foremost with their status as an invasive pest. Koi carp cause considerable damage to New Zealand waterways and there are countless fishing competitions held in an attempt to reduce numbers.
I’ve always considered Koi ponds to be universally well known. I’ve seen them everywhere from people’s private gardens; to public Japanese gardens; to pop culture references (the Simpsons etc).
That's a weird one to me, virtually all the local pet stores carry koi on the regular, and there's a few places with koi ponds. Carp are definitely less well known, but I've never observed koi to be anywhere near the level of unknown you're describing.
Lori Patton
Well-Known Member
On a recent trip to the Santa Ana Zoo, there was a little girl about three or four-years-old who was screaming "Baa-aaa-aah" at the top of her lungs right into the goat's face. She was about the same height as the goat and only a few inches away. Her mother was actually egging her on because as soon as the girl stopped, the mom started saying "Baa" herself. There were several other adults with her group and no one seemed to think anything of it. I looked around and there was one employee cleaning up who also took no notice. The noise wasn't just a little bleating sound, it was glass-shattering shrieks!
Possibly, if the people I overheard mostly live in New York City, they don't have enough space at home to keep large tanks, and certainly not ponds. There's also not too many retail pet stores or aquarium stores, and those in the city tend to be tiny compared to ones in the suburbs.
DCzootripper
Well-Known Member
When people bang on the glass to get animals attention, even if there is a sign telling you not too.
Tamandua56
Well-Known Member
I don't know about other countries, but in France, capybaras are the ones that are most often confused. To be honest, it's almost impossible for visitors to correctly identify a capybara. For many "average" visitors, they are marmots, wombats, giant guinea pigs, square-headed pigs, and even, at one point, a prehistoric animal (!).