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

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Nathano said:
I'm a Visitor Engagement Volunteer at Chester Zoo and have been for almost a year now. Most of the time, guests are nice, polite and genuinely interested in hearing about the animals.

Most of my volunteering happened during school trip season; and I always ended up at "schoolkid" hotspots, so I ended up talking to a lot of kids. I love talking to kids; they're often really bright and it's fun wording facts in a way they'd understand (e.g. using Maurice from Madagascar as an example when talking about our aye-ayes).

With most school trips, the kids were as good as gold; at worst, they were a bit noisy. The rare cases of bad behaviour were easily corrected by me, with the help of the teachers/parent volunteers.

However, there was one exception, when I was volunteering in the aye-aye house. It's normally a two-man job, but the guy who I was supposed to be with hadn't turned up, so I was alone. About 20-30 kids (it was a school trip) came into the aye-aye house and started getting pretty noisy (well, they were excited). So, I had to try and calm them down one-by-one, which went just about as well as you'd expect; when I got one kid quiet, another would pipe up. So I just thought "I give up" and went to ask the teacher for help.

What was the teacher doing when this was happening? Why, she was standing, back against the wall, on her phone! When I walked over to her and asked her if she could help me get the kids quiet, she looked at me, shrugged (as if to say "not my problem"), and immediately went back to texting. I eventually got the kids calmed down; by addressing them as a group and telling them why the aye-ayes didn't like loud noise. To their credit, they calmed right down and were good as gold the rest of the time.

I didn't file a complaint for three reasons. First of all, I couldn't see the uniforms (I'd only just gone in), so I didn't know which school it was. Secondly, I didn't know if the "teacher" was an actual employee (she might have just been a parent enlisted to help on the trip). The last reason was I didn't want the kids thinking I was mad at them; for these kids, I think it had been a long time since anyone in uniform was patient with them.

I have an "uncle" (he's my aunt's partner) who's a deputy head teacher and, when I told him about it, he was amazed I didn't file a complaint; if one of the teachers at his school had behaved like that, he'd have fired her.

Sorry if I sound grouchy here.
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You make good points. Even though I don't work at Barcelona Zoo (or any other one I visit, for that matter! ;) ), I often like to inform the public about the animals, and most of the times, the kids are often MUCH more interested in what the zoo has to offer than their parents or teachers, who are usually neutral towards the subject or "sad that they're in cages..."
This is why I like working with kids more than adults sometimes; their minds aren't fogged up by nonsense social norms and bad reporting!
 
Nathano said:
I'm a Visitor Engagement Volunteer at Chester Zoo and have been for almost a year now. Most of the time, guests are nice, polite and genuinely interested in hearing about the animals.

Most of my volunteering happened during school trip season; and I always ended up at "schoolkid" hotspots, so I ended up talking to a lot of kids. I love talking to kids; they're often really bright and it's fun wording facts in a way they'd understand (e.g. using Maurice from Madagascar as an example when talking about our aye-ayes).

With most school trips, the kids were as good as gold; at worst, they were a bit noisy. The rare cases of bad behaviour were easily corrected by me, with the help of the teachers/parent volunteers.

However, there was one exception, when I was volunteering in the aye-aye house. It's normally a two-man job, but the guy who I was supposed to be with hadn't turned up, so I was alone. About 20-30 kids (it was a school trip) came into the aye-aye house and started getting pretty noisy (well, they were excited). So, I had to try and calm them down one-by-one, which went just about as well as you'd expect; when I got one kid quiet, another would pipe up. So I just thought "I give up" and went to ask the teacher for help.

What was the teacher doing when this was happening? Why, she was standing, back against the wall, on her phone! When I walked over to her and asked her if she could help me get the kids quiet, she looked at me, shrugged (as if to say "not my problem"), and immediately went back to texting. I eventually got the kids calmed down; by addressing them as a group and telling them why the aye-ayes didn't like loud noise. To their credit, they calmed right down and were good as gold the rest of the time.

I didn't file a complaint for three reasons. First of all, I couldn't see the uniforms (I'd only just gone in), so I didn't know which school it was. Secondly, I didn't know if the "teacher" was an actual employee (she might have just been a parent enlisted to help on the trip). The last reason was I didn't want the kids thinking I was mad at them; for these kids, I think it had been a long time since anyone in uniform was patient with them.

I have an "uncle" (he's my aunt's partner) who's a deputy head teacher and, when I told him about it, he was amazed I didn't file a complaint; if one of the teachers at his school had behaved like that, he'd have fired her.

Sorry if I sound grouchy here.
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As a teacher (who takes children on zoo trips) I am really sorry to hear this, and sorry to all on behalf of my profession for teachers who are not engaged, enthusiastic etc on zoo trips with their pupils. My trips have always been huge successes, I am sure partly thanks to my enthusiasm prior to and during the trip. This is in contrast with the classes of other teachers who have been on my trips - they enjoy the trip but definitely don't get as much out of it as my classes do. I will never forget the rough, tough boy who couldn't contain his excitement about seeing actual live Siamangs (even though I constantly had to remind him they had "throat sacs" not "fruit sacs"!)
 
Most of my hates are like everyone else's (tapping on glass, flash photography, loud children, etc.), but what annoys me the most is incorrect signage and whenever someone says one animal is another animal. Examples would include birds of paradise being called parrots, tapirs being called young elephants, and, to a lesser extent, confusion between similar species (often heard in the form of confusing the three species of blue macaw).

-:cool::cool:TheWalrus:cool::cool:
 
When people say 'oo those penguins need some ice' or when you visit in winter and people say 'the penguins must love it right now'. I have experienced this with Humboldt's...
 
Dumb things that people say: ‘look at the black bear cub’ about a fully grown ten year (plus) old sun bear.
 
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PaleoMatt said:
When people say 'oo those penguins need some ice' or when you visit in winter and people say 'the penguins must love it right now'. I have experienced this with Humboldt's...
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I get why some people, especially young children, think that all penguins like cold weather. But older people saying that about Humboldt, Magellanic and African penguins? That would be the dumbest thing I'd ever hear.

-:cool::cool:TheWalrus:cool::cool:
 
TheWalrus said:
I get why some people, especially young children, think that all penguins like cold weather. But older people saying that about Humboldt, Magellanic and African penguins? That would be the dumbest thing I'd ever hear.

-:cool::cool:TheWalrus:cool::cool:
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I've heard lots of anti-zoo idiots defending their extremism with: "PENGUINS SHOULDN'T BE IN BARCELONA!!! IT'S TOO HOT FOR THEM!!!!"
They're Humboldt's...
 
TheWalrus said:
I get why some people, especially young children, think that all penguins like cold weather. But older people saying that about Humboldt, Magellanic and African penguins? That would be the dumbest thing I'd ever hear.

-:cool::cool:TheWalrus:cool::cool:
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You know that most people have no interest in or knowledge of zoology right? Most are probably not even aware there are separate species of penguin. Frankly a large section of the population could not give a working definition of the word 'species'.

If this is where you set the bar for 'dumbest thing you'll hear' then you're in for a whole world of pain....
 
FunkyGibbon said:
You know that most people have no interest in or knowledge of zoology right? Most are probably not even aware there are separate species of penguin. Frankly a large section of the population could not give a working definition of the word 'species'.

If this is where you set the bar for 'dumbest thing you'll hear' then you're in for a whole world of pain....
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Totally true. I've heard FAR worse from adults:
- Calling any light-bodied bovine or cervid "Bambi" (f***ing hate that!)
- Calling an otter a seal
- Calling leopards tigers and vice versa
- Calling an iguana a crocodile
- Calling flamingos ducks and pelicans
- Calling lemurs "rodents"
- Calling a tapir an anteater
And, the grand prize goes to...
- Calling a Bactrian camel "horsie".
All of these are real quotes.
 
wen i was at kolmården zoo last year a famely wacked past me at the takin padok. one of them asckt wathe that animale was then the dad of the groupe said thath it was a wildebeest. a thath momet they wackt past the singne for it. com one
my mome has also told me that one time wen i was litel i was angry at a man that he said that a goat was a sheep
 
Calling a Grizzly Bear a Lion...

Or when a zoo sign says "Lions and Tigers would never meet in the wild." :rolleyes:
 
birdsandbats said:
Or when a zoo sign says "Lions and Tigers would never meet in the wild." :rolleyes:
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There is some passionate debate about whether or not tigers are anywhere near Sasan Gir. I believe this is the first time the tiger census as included the region in their count.


This is a new one to me: While catching up with San Francisco's new snow leopards the keeper, was explaining how the two are rotated in and out. One punter popped up with "Why don't you build her her own enclosure?!" Later the subject of names* came up and one woman called out "how dare you steal her identity, and change her name halfway through life!" At which point in time she put her kids back in the stroller and stormed off.

* - SF has a policy(?) of changing new arrivals names -- at least publicly -- and auctioning off the chance to name/rename the animal in question. Keepers, however, have indicated that they continue using the original name.
 
Kids playing video games and missing out on the animals (Kids get distracted easily I don’t blame them, slightly annoying though)

Nikko the white handed gibbon was called a monkey at first but then the person “corrected” to chimpanzee during one trip. On the same trip a family was imitating the chimpanzees which annoys me the most because the chimps came from certain situations (ownership, labs, etc)
 
JigerofLemuria said:
Totally true. I've heard FAR worse from adults:
- Calling any light-bodied bovine or cervid "Bambi" (f***ing hate that!)
- Calling an otter a seal
- Calling leopards tigers and vice versa
- Calling an iguana a crocodile
- Calling flamingos ducks and pelicans
- Calling lemurs "rodents"
- Calling a tapir an anteater
And, the grand prize goes to...
- Calling a Bactrian camel "horsie".
All of these are real quotes.
Click to expand...

Nah!

"What's that Dad?"

"I think it's a flamingo..."


It was a binturong.
 
SHAVINGTONZOO said:
Nah!

"What's that Dad?"

"I think it's a flamingo..."


It was a binturong.
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If this is at Chester it must be noted that the binturongs have no signage. Many people are always shocked at how tiny the 'sun bears' are. They think the binturongs are sun bears...

Once I went to see the sun bears but all I saw was a slepping binturong. I said to my friend, 'oh well that isn't a sun bear', some young girl then said 'yes it is, look at the sign!'. At least she read the sign unlike most people :/
 
At the Aquarium of the Pacific last week there was a family whose children would walk up to a tank, look at the animals, then kick the glass and move on. Thankfully, someone told them to stop just after I noticed it.

~Thylo
 
Visitor in front of the enclosure, with utter conviction: "This [insert live animal specimen] isn't real!"

Today, I had my first of this kind of visitor at the "Welt der Gifte", though I've encountered them at other institutes. While I was calmly explaining that no, the snake was very much alive and that it makes no sense (at least to me) to display an artificial animal in a well-furbished tank, the European horned viper snapped at her behind the glass.

That'll do snake; that'll do.
 
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