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

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Stuff......

People who hold their very small kids up to sit on standoff barriers, and have to be told what will happen if they fall and that innocent looking primate seizes the opportunity and grabs a bit. Or who is going to fish that kid out of the penguin pool, if they drop it.
 
Just thought I'd share some of the things I've heard animals called while working at zoos. This is just the few I can remember.

Gibbon: monkey, gorilla
Coati: monkey, cat dog, big meerkat, big rat, raccoon
Kookaburra: owl
Mongoose: meerkat
Serval: lion
Tamarin: lemur
Lemurs: monkey (at least 5 times a day)
Tapir: elephant, hippo

Now try and tell me that isn't infuriating.

Also people mentioned kids but I saw an adult reach over the standoff barriers, through the wire to touch a particularly dangerous gibbon, despite loads of signs. He was thrown out
 
People who on raised viewing area, either A: Lean over, or B: Sit their children on the barrier (even if they've got a strong hold on them) as I am terrified of heights and thinks everybody will fall! (This is more of a personal problem, then a generic one!)
 
Odo said:
The two things I hate the most are parents who can't control their kids and people who call animals by the wrong names.
I know that second one's a little unfair but it really winds me up, especially when it's something like "Look at the monkey" and I'm just like no, it's a gorilla, IT'S A FECKING APE.
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For the record Gibbons are not monkeys. They are apes. I always get ticked off at the assertion that they are.
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Actually all apes are monkeys, but not all monkeys are apes. Same as all monkeys are primates, but not all primates are monkeys or all humans are monkeys/apes but not all monkeys/apes are humans. In the end monkey is just the daily term for simians.
 
DDcorvus said:
Actually all apes are monkeys, but not all monkeys are apes. Same as all monkeys are primates, but not all primates are monkeys or all humans are monkeys/apes but not all monkeys/apes are humans. In the end monkey is just the daily term for simians.
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I disagree. Traditionally the term ape is used for higher primates which are not human, but have no tail - hence Barbary ape and Celebes black ape, as well as the gibbons and great apes. You may think those names are old-fashioned and unsystematic, but that doesn't make them wrong per se. Taxonomically these macaques are monkeys of course: but gibbons and great apes are no more monkeys than lemurs, galagos and tarsiers are.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
I disagree. Traditionally the term ape is used for higher primates which are not human, but have no tail - hence Barbary ape and Celebes black ape, as well as the gibbons and great apes. You may think those names are old-fashioned and unsystematic, but that doesn't make them wrong per se. Taxonomically these macaques are monkeys of course: but gibbons and great apes are no more monkeys than lemurs, galagos and tarsiers are.

Alan
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Taxonomically apes are of course a lot closer to being monkeys than lemurs and even tarsiers. The issue is that language is a living thing and the meaning for the word monkey has stretched. Very few people would call the non-tailed macaques apes these days especially outside the UK. In the end it also depends on your personal interpretation on the normal name. Which is also the reason binomial nomenclature was set up to have prevent the confusion of the names in daily use. Being annoyed with someone calling a gorilla a monkey is nitpicking as they are a simian in the end.
 
Odo said:
Just thought I'd share some of the things I've heard animals called while working at zoos. This is just the few I can remember.

Gibbon: monkey, gorilla
Coati: monkey, cat dog, big meerkat, big rat, raccoon
Kookaburra: owl
Mongoose: meerkat
Serval: lion
Tamarin: lemur
Lemurs: monkey (at least 5 times a day)
Tapir: elephant, hippo

Now try and tell me that isn't infuriating.

Also people mentioned kids but I saw an adult reach over the standoff barriers, through the wire to touch a particularly dangerous gibbon, despite loads of signs. He was thrown out
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A Serval and a Lion are very similar, I often confound them... ;)
The worst at this "a-mongoose-is-a-meerkat-and-every-monkey-is-just-a-monkey"-thing is the fact that there are big, obvious and unmissable signs telling the visitors not only the species' name. It's not bad if someone doesn't know a species' name at one go (it's one reason for people to go to zoos) but I'm very worried because of some people's inability at reading a sign. Nevertheless, a little bit preknowledge to differentiate a coati from a big rat (:o) should be existing in my eyes.:D
I think zoos do a quite good job meanwhile at educating and informing about nature, animals, conservation etc..but some people don't WANT to utilize those possibilities.
 
Trust me I used to educate these people xD like you say it's mainly the utterly ridiculous ones that are more infuriating. What's even worse is when you come across visitors who just don't want to learn
 
I'm not sure whether this was mentioned before, but people who smoke in zoos where they're not allowed to infuriate me. If they're smoking in an allowed area, then there's nothing there for me to be mad at, as they're not breaking any rules. But my hometown zoo prohibits smoking anywhere on grounds, yet I see people going around smoking and generally just ruining other guests' experiences with the smell.
 
KCZooFan said:
Today I visited the Sedgwick County Zoo. It was a pleasant experiance, except one thing. I was in the Jungle building, and I saw a small bird walking on the ground. A child of about 6 came up to the bird and KICKED it! I was about to ready to kill him. His parents told him off, and the bird seemed umharmed, but I cannot beleive a child would do this. It just goes to show, today's youth just has no respect for wildlife, and are more intereted in things like this. Its just unbeleivable.
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I hope that wretched brat gets killed by a cassowary...
 
chrisbarela said:
My favorite comment is,"Is that a fake _____?" This usually can be heard around reptiles, especially crocodilians. The concept that all animals animals DON'T bounce around like cartoons is strange and foreign to a lot of the general public. Whenever I hear that comment, and I've heard it a lot, I usually tell them in hushed tones that, "yes, the world famous San Diego zoo often puts out fake animals hoping that no one notices."
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People who accuse a crocodilian, monitor lizard or poisonous snake of being fake should be put in their enclosure for five minutes.
 
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BeardsleyZooFan said:
I'm not sure whether this was mentioned before, but people who smoke in zoos where they're not allowed to infuriate me. If they're smoking in an allowed area, then there's nothing there for me to be mad at, as they're not breaking any rules. But my hometown zoo prohibits smoking anywhere on grounds, yet I see people going around smoking and generally just ruining other guests' experiences with the smell.
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Hopefully they aren't flicking cigarettes into the enclosures.
 
Chlidonias said:
when I was little, my kindergarten had a honey badger pit. The bad kids were thrown in and if they survived they learned not to be bad. True story.
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That happened to me at kindy. I learnt that Honey Badger don't give a s***.

And nowadays, neither do I.

:p

Hix
 
Chlidonias said:
when I was little, my kindergarten had a honey badger pit. The bad kids were thrown in and if they survived they learned not to be bad. True story.
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"Darling? You know when you said a rattle would be an appropriate present for our son? I have some bad news...."
 
A few posters on this thread could use the Honey Badger pit:p

And my state didn't have any Honey Badgers so we had to settle for Fishers instead.

~Thylo:cool:
 
JigerofLemuria said:
People who accuse a crocodilian, monitor lizard or poisonous snake of being fake should be put in their enclosure for five minutes.
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I have to admit, I often wonder if I'm taking photos of fakes or not. I often walk past them slowly, note their position, then return later to photogrpaph them if they've moved ;)
 
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