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

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It really annoys me when people just look at the body of an animal and take no notice of the face. One day in 2006 i went to colchester zoo and a man told his daughter that the animals were leopards and they were in fact cheetahs.

this is the conversation we had:
Man (takling to daughter): look over there, theres a leopard.
Me: no it's not it's a cheetah
Man: no it ain't, it's a leopard, look at it's body pattern
Me: that is where you are wrong look at it's face. it has tear drop markings. Running from it's eye to the corner of it's mouth.
Keeper: Shes right, you know.
Man's daughter: Daddy, you got it wrong.
 
TARZAN;396055 they think its marvellous to see a much loved elephant being cut up in full view of a national television audience giving no thought whatsoever for the feelings of the people who were fond of the beast or indeed to the memory of the animal herself said:
Whats wrong with an animal being used as an instrument of education after there death ? Do you think it was put down especially to be discected ?
Wasnt she an instrument of education when she was at the zoo ?
Surely teaching people the biological machinary at the heart of life is the ultimate respect one can extract from the death of an animal who is much loved ?
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At the giants of the savanna:
Man:hey kids come over here
Son:hey it doesnt say staff only I'm going to go in there (refering to the keeper area inside the strangler fig, thank god it was locked)
Daughter:(with long stalk of grass she pulled from the horticulture) eat it you dumb elephant!
Man: HAHAHAHA
son: look there is a piece of food laying there, should i hop the fence and feed it to em'?
Dad: ehh, go ahead. (looking around to see if anyone is looking)
Me: Sir, the animals are on a specially prepared diet, also these barriers are here for a reason. For the elephant's and for your safety.
*family walks off.

-this could have been bad
-I hope anyone else would say the same thing....
 
I wish that more zoo visitors would pull into line the numbnuts that put themselves and our animals at risk.

Unfortunately, keepers can't be everywhere at once.

Well done, Dallaspachyderm.
 
Yes, there needs to be more volunteers like my self stationed at viewing areas to answer questions and straighten out the "nuts." This really made me uneasy about what happens when no one is watching...
 
Once again digging up an old thread but like I said before, I haven't been on in a while and I have some new ones :D

Anyone who works/volunteers at a zoo or an aquarium whose job involves speaking to the public will know this one... how about when you give a talk on an animal to someone, and then that person proceeds to park themselves next to you and regurge everything you just said to everyone who stops to take a look?... Like no, that's my job... haha
 
Thankx for moving this back up to the front! I've never seen it and immediately went to it. I'm only on the first post and I'm already YES YES YES! Glad I'm not alone in my irritation. I'll have to see if i have any new ones to add when I'm done.
 
I probably said this before but when someone walks up to me holding a Snake and goes "Oh that would make a nice pair of shoes..." it absolutely makes my blood boil. Like, it totally goes against everything that zoos and aquariums have tried to do in the last few decades, totally disproves all that progress. People like that just make me appreciate it that much more when someone comes along and actually appreciates the animal, wants to learn about it, is in awe of it.
With summer right around the corner, I should have a lot more stories coming up... hehe :D
 
Gosh, well I read the first 8 pages last night and was hyped up lol! Misbehavior towards animals has become my isolated point of issue. I'm now on page 10 and hyped again, so I think I need a break. I stayed away from the Zoo this weekend to avoid asshats, but now I've read about them instead lol!

So, yea the stroller thing is a drag, and people saying stupid crap is a drag, and yes I complain to my friend endlessly as we walk around profiling idiots. Although I'd rather people behave in every manner so my visit isn't so infuriating, I'd much rather see crap like that than see someone throwing something at an animal, vocalizing to them or assaulting (kicking,knocking, banging, yadda) their enclosure. Although it all makes my blood boil.

Sometimes I have to amuse myself with the idiots, who are mostly adults. While watching the River Otters, some hooker ran up yelling to her friend who was trailing, "Hamsters!" She stopped in front of the sign and repeated it, then looked at me. So, I said, "They are Sea Hamsters." She turned to her friend who was now there and said, "They're Sea Hamsters!" She seemed happy with the information. I had a laugh and so did everyone I told after that.

I spend extended time with my guy Goober, the Bairds Tapir. People love him, and mostly think he's an anteater??? But more so than any other animal they always seem to read his sign to learn what he is, but there are those ignants who run by blurting out stuff you just have to go HUH!? "Look, its a prehistoric dinosaur type thing."????

I used to work for an outsourced company at the Zoo and someone stopped and asked me, (seriously, they even had the map open!) where the Woolly Mammoth was? I almost pointed them to the Lion House and said, "Near the Sabertooths", but instead I said, there aren't any Mammoths here, but you might want to see the Rhino's that would be the closest thing. (there are no Elephants at our Zoo).

It really is a wonderment of disgust and disappointment hearing the things people say and watching the things they do. Its not just in Zoos, but because of my love for animals, I've narrowed my radar to this environment. Its amazing that people will pay to come to a place where animals live and be so disrespectful. I have heard everything noted here as well, and have to say wow, there are some things told here that are crazy. I would go ballistic if I saw some of the stuff you guys have written about. It seems the UK folk are alittle more extreme than the US. How is it that so many people have access to exotic animals that the can give them ice cream cones?

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not alone in what I witness and my frustration, but I wish I was, as then we would live in a world where people respected animals, and in respect to Zoo's were just happy at the opportunity to experience seeing beauty like this.

There is a sign about Respecting the Animals at my Zoo. A few weeks ago there was a handful of twenty-somethings standing around it. One read it out loud and laughed. "They don't respect me, so why should I respect them." !!! I shouldn't have been shocked but I was. I wish I was more on the ball as I would have video taped it. I wanted to say, "Why are you here?" but I probably would have gotten banned for harassing other visitors. Humans for the most part are despicable. Sorry, I do not think praising those who act civil and appear to be enjoying the Zoo is something to make note of, its something I expect of those at the Zoo.

UG!
 
UG indeed. Some people just don't have the ability to respect animals. It's really sad, too, because, as someone who spends a lot of time with animals, at home, at zoos, and occasionally (if I'm lucky) in the wild, I can safely say that are missing out:D I don't mind ignorance as long as it won't rub off on other people and doesn't hurt the animals.

One pet peeve I do have, is when parents walk around a zoo with small children exclaiming "Eeew it's so gross!!" at every reptile they see. Not only are they being ignorant, but they are teaching their children to be ignorant, as well. They don't have to pretend that they are in love with certain animals, but by trivializing them and making them out to be gross or less than what mammals are, they basically make up their kids' minds for them.
 
Count me in on the many who find it irritating how people assume animals are "bored" because they're sleeping. If you go to Africa, chances are you'll find lions, elephants, etc, resting. They're not always constantly looking for food.

I don't like the "ewww gross" stuff either.
 
Ya know, the only people I've ever heard say an animal was bored were volunteers... same stuff too "aww it looks so bored, pacing" etc:D it comes from a sincere place of course, just the fact that it puts the zoo in a negative light that bothers me. I mean, if you put the same animal in an enclosure the size of a city block, it will pace just the same... it's a territorial thing, not a boredom thing.

Usually when I see guests observe, say, the Leopards, sleeping, they say something like "aww he looks so chill, I wish I had that life":D
 
I think all of the above annoys me, but one that really gets to me is when visitors get angry when they can't see the animal...'where is it?'...'there's nothing in there!'...'what a waste of money!' blah blah blah. Argh the whole 'eeeew' thing, I was watching the pygmy hippos indoors, at Bristol zoo, every single person who walked in swiftly left holding their noses shouting 'OMG THE SMELL' wow, just wow...what did you expect roses.
 
renn23 said:
Argh the whole 'eeeew' thing, I was watching the pygmy hippos indoors, at Bristol zoo, every single person who walked in swiftly left holding their noses shouting 'OMG THE SMELL' wow, just wow...what did you expect roses.
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To be fair, that is one of the funkiest of funks in a UK zoo.:)
 
While this wasn't exactly a zoo experience, in my most recent stay in the hospital, an aquarium educator came to visit, and he showed viewers various skulls, bones and skeletal pieces from different marine animals. While he brought around a snapping turtle carapace, I asked, "is that from an alligator snapping turtle?" and he said, "no, it's a snapping turtle." He probably just heard "alligator" and it made me feel stupid, only because a few people heard as well, and there was a younger girl there trying to be a know-it-all (but thankfully she was failing at it, so I didn't look that bad :p)
 
Only once I went to the Dublin Zoo during the weekend. Since then, I only go there during the week, preferably Monday morning.
Ignorant parents are the worst:

in front of the Red Panda enclosure, kid is excited, his father bored.
"Let´s go, say bye to the MONKEY!"

Kid in front of the Small-clawed Otter enclosure, standing RIGHT NEXT TO THE INFORMATION SIGN:
"Mom, what is it?"
"I don´t know, let´s get some ice-cream."

:mad::confused::mad:
 
One day I was at the detroit zoo and the sloth was coming down to defecate. As he was coming down a group of people formed. As soon as he was within a foot of the ground, a group of college students walked off the main path of the aviary he was in and and stood right next to the tree he was in and started taking bright flash photography. Before he could get down to the ground he was startled by the all the flash and had to climb back up. If someone disturbed me during my once a week bowel movement I would also be ticked.
 
One of the things which irritates me about zoos is the vast sum of money that gets spent on new exhibits to display a small number of animals that are common in zoos. There may be a big notice saying how the species is endangered in the wild and how the zoo is 'conserving it'. The notice does not say that there is no intention for any of the individuals or their offspring to be returned to the wild and that the exhibit has been built more for commercial reasons, rather than any conservation value. The notice also doesn't say that if the exhibit wins an architectural award, it will be very difficult to replace it or that the money spent on the exhibit could have been used to protect the habitat of several individuals of the species and of other species.

After all, we don't need to have a large tank of blue whales to let people know that blue whales are endangered, so why do we need large enclosures containing big cats, great apes, elephants or other well-known animals to let people know that they are endangered?

In a time when many people have financial problems, I think some zoos are dishonest in getting people to pay towards projects that have little impact on wild populations of the species, especially when the new enclosure will replace the enclosures of smaller species that may be much rarer than the 'charismatic species.
 
Dassie rat said:
One of the things which irritates me about zoos is the vast sum of money that gets spent on new exhibits to display a small number of animals that are common in zoos. There may be a big notice saying how the species is endangered in the wild and how the zoo is 'conserving it'. The notice does not say that there is no intention for any of the individuals or their offspring to be returned to the wild and that the exhibit has been built more for commercial reasons, rather than any conservation value. The notice also doesn't say that if the exhibit wins an architectural award, it will be very difficult to replace it or that the money spent on the exhibit could have been used to protect the habitat of several individuals of the species and of other species.

After all, we don't need to have a large tank of blue whales to let people know that blue whales are endangered, so why do we need large enclosures containing big cats, great apes, elephants or other well-known animals to let people know that they are endangered?

In a time when many people have financial problems, I think some zoos are dishonest in getting people to pay towards projects that have little impact on wild populations of the species, especially when the new enclosure will replace the enclosures of smaller species that may be much rarer than the 'charismatic species.
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Oh yeah. You shouldn´t donate money to the Zoo to built a new enclosure for tigers, but you should donate money to organisation which is actually saving the wild tigers. There should be information about that next to the enclosure. And lots of zoos do that, Dublin zoo supports the EAZA Ape Campaign for example.
 
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