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

Status
Not open for further replies.
I hate when people through/drop things into exhibits. At the Mystic Aquarium, a little boy threw his toy right over the protective netting right into the Pacific Harbor Seal/Steller Sea Lion exhibit. The keepers went crazy trying to stop the animals from eating it. Also, at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, a little girl dropped her Gaterade bottle into the Styan's Red Panda exhibit (that little girl was my cousin). Of course, this one was an accident and we immediatly reported it to a keeper. Strangely, when we went back to the exhibit about 30-45 minutes later, the bottle was still there. This leads in another thing that annoys me- when keepers just don't give a damn. Now this happens rarely and mabye the keeper just forgot as he was clearly busy when we told him but keepers have a specific duty and responsability to both the visitors and the animals and an animal's saftey should come above all in this kind of work.
 
Chlidonias said:
only Zoochatters are allowed to look at animals in zoos. Anyone else who takes an interest is a jerk and a loser
Click to expand...

I was barely a week old my first zoo visit (Smithsonian National Zoo) and I went to that zoo every single week until we moved when I was about 2. I wasn't a ZooChattian at that time so what? I was a loser, jerk baby?:D By those terms, my grandmother, step-grandfather brother, sister, mother, father, cousins, and aunts/uncles are all losers and jerks.:D I read somewhere that zoos/aquariums are visited more each year in the U.S. then every single sports game combined so there are a lot of losers and jerks out there.:D
 
AnaheimZoo said:
Did you ever stop and think "Maybe these guys must really love themselves some turtles"? Gosh, inconsiderate jerks like you really tick me off. :D
Click to expand...

But did they ever stop and think, "Hey, maybe other people are interested in seeing this turtle and we can scootch over so other people can see!":p
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I was barely a week old my first zoo visit (Smithsonian National Zoo) and I went to that zoo every single week until we moved when I was about 2. I wasn't a ZooChattian at that time so what? I was a loser, jerk baby?:D By those terms, my grandmother, step-grandfather brother, sister, mother, father, cousins, and aunts/uncles are all losers and jerks.:D I read somewhere that zoos/aquariums are visited more each year in the U.S. then every single sports game combined so there are a lot of losers and jerks out there.:D
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if you missed the sarcasm of my post or not; I had thought it was obvious given the comment I was quoting. In this and other similar threads some of the annoyances are of actual problems like people smoking or banging on the cage or feeding the animals ice-cream. But very very many (by particular people) are petty little "I'm better than your average visitor" remarks, such as that "random visitor number one" didn't know how to pronounce the name of some obscure animal, or that "random visitor number two" made some quip about a tapir looking like a cross between a pig and an elephant.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
The correct term is ZooChattians, not Zoochatters.
Click to expand...

'Zoochatters' has been used on here for ages - I like it. It's fun. It's nice to have a demonym.

Where has 'Zoochattians' come from? Not so euphonious to my ears.
 
Chlidonias said:
I'm not sure if you missed the sarcasm of my post or not; I had thought it was obvious given the comment I was quoting. In this and other similar threads some of the annoyances are of actual problems like people smoking or banging on the cage or feeding the animals ice-cream. But very very many (by particular people) are petty little "I'm better than your average visitor" remarks, such as that "random visitor number one" didn't know how to pronounce the name of some obscure animal, or that "random visitor number two" made some quip about a tapir looking like a cross between a pig and an elephant.
Click to expand...

I didn't miss the sarcasm in your comment but you missed mine. I thought the multiple ":D" made it kind of obvious.

Maguari- I made up ZooChattians. I though it was fun sounding and original but I don't really expect people to start using it since ZooChatters seems to be the excepted term here.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I didn't miss the sarcasm in your comment but you missed mine. I thought the multiple ":D" made it kind of obvious.
Click to expand...
the problem with the constant over-use of smilies is that they lose whatever impact you intended them to have
 
These all came my visit to the Central Park Zoo today.

When people promote misconceptions about animals. I saw a mother telling her child to be careful of the Red-Bellied Piranhas because they'll eat his hand off.

When people litter. I was in the Tropical Building and saw a Long-Tailed Hornbill with a juice straw in its mouth. I have the picture to proove it, too.

When people jump in front of your camera right when you have the perfect shot. I was going crazy trying to get a picture of the Snow Leopard but everytime I had a decent shot this same lady kept jumping in front of me.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Maguari- I made up ZooChattians. I though it was fun sounding and original but I don't really expect people to start using it since ZooChatters seems to be the excepted term here.
Click to expand...

Now if this were an exhibit at the zoo you'd be pouring scorn on the ignorant fool who said excepted when meaning accepted (or expected) and quoting them on this thread.
 
Calling everything that looks vaguely simian and/or climbs trees a monkey: chimpanzees are monkeys, gorillas are monkeys, lemurs are monkeys, even red pandas and sloths are monkeys.

These and other ignorant statements are perfectly fine coming from young children, but half the time it's a parent "teaching" it to their kids and that just drives me crazy.

That said, since starting university a few weeks ago I have had not one but two Biology lecturers make the exact same "chimpanzees are monkeys" mistake. To be fair, they were a geneticist and a developmental biologist, respectively, not zoologists, and were only mentioning the chimpanzee as brief asides, but still...
 
ThylacineAlive said:
These all came my visit to the Central Park Zoo today.

When people promote misconceptions about animals. I saw a mother telling her child to be careful of the Red-Bellied Piranhas because they'll eat his hand off.
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong in instilling terror in small children ;)
 
Another stereotype that I heard, but thought was an understandale mistake that I used to make until the past year or so,was that all bats only came out at night. Although if this were true, I assume the Rodrigues Flying Fox would be in a nocturnal exhibit like the Short-Tailed Fruit Bats.
 
Maguari said:
'Zoochatters' has been used on here for ages - I like it. It's fun. It's nice to have a demonym.

Where has 'Zoochattians' come from? Not so euphonious to my ears.
Click to expand...

As a random aside, Auckland Zoo had, until the late 90s/early 2000s when it was renamed, a cafe called "Chatters Cafe" as well as an adjoining "Chatters Plaza". This would have been a perfect base for all of us to meet!
 
zooboy28 said:
As a random aside, Auckland Zoo had, until the late 90s/early 2000s when it was renamed, a cafe called "Chatters Cafe" as well as an adjoining "Chatters Plaza". This would have been a perfect base for all of us to meet!
Click to expand...

You going to pay to get us all down to Auckland:D
 
zooboy28 said:
As a random aside, Auckland Zoo had, until the late 90s/early 2000s when it was renamed, a cafe called "Chatters Cafe" as well as an adjoining "Chatters Plaza". This would have been a perfect base for all of us to meet!
Click to expand...

Aw, that would've been great!
 
While a keep was presenting a ball python, she mentioned how they were native to parts of Africa, just below where the Burmese python lives. :D
 
mazfc said:
Nothing wrong in instilling terror in small children ;)
Click to expand...

And you're a teacher? :rolleyes:;):eek:



Just spent about 5 minutes trawling your old posts to make sure I had my facts right... :p
 
Last edited:
Back at the Toronto Zoo, I found the keepers to be helpful and ready to act: once, I remember a mother worriedly telling a volunteer that her baby had dropped a toy or some small plastic thing into the (then) cape fur seal pool. Almost immediately, the volunteer went for a keeper, and in less than five minutes, the toy was safely out of the pool and given back to it's owner. However, in Shanghai, where I now live, the tourists aren't so careful with the animals and the keepers don't really seem to care. One just stood there and smoked and chatted with his friends while tourists threw bananas over the moat to the Golden Snub-nosed Monkeys, because obviously these were monkeys, and obviously monkeys all ate bananas. And right in front of them there was a sign saying "Do not feed the monkeys. They have to have a very balanced diet" was literally right in front of them. This and the fact that the keepers did nothing really sets me off. Another instance was when a couple came up to the crab-eating macaques and pelted them with gravel, rocks, and what looked like the girl's lipstick. Understandably, the macaques were rather ticked off at this, and three of them turned around and squirted steaming shots of urine at their faces. The girl screamed louder than the monkeys when she saw that her fur jacket was stained yellow. She and the guy were screaming and yelling and saying that they wanted to sue the zoo. Well, who's fault is it for throwing rocks at the animals...?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top