What animal looks different in real life to what you expected?

G

Grant Rhino

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I recently saw a numbat in a zoo for the first time in my life. Of course I knew what a numbat was, and had seen photos of them, but what really surprised me was how small it was (I expected them to be quite a lot bigger).

On the same day, my son said that he thought Tasmanian Devils would be bigger than they are.

What animal have you seen in a zoo that is bigger or smaller or different in any way to what you expected?
 
I saw a Talapoin for the first time a couple of months ago and it was much smaller than I expected.
 
What animal..?

As a very small child, I thought mice would be about rabbit size, maybe bigger. Gobsmacked when I saw my first one.
 
Musk ox spring to mind immediately, I was just baffled by how small they were compared to what I expected. It took several years to get used to their actual size....

On the other hand I expected sickle-billed vanga to be a large sun bird size, where they are over twice that size.....
 
Dassie rat said:
The first time I saw an aye-aye, it was larger than I expected it to be. It is about the size of a cat, but I have read various texts saying it is 'diminutive'.
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AyeAye is a classic example of a species one expects to be smaller than it is. I had presumed it was squirrel-sized and the first one I ever saw (in a museum) was quite a shock, being much bigger than I expected. I was really surprised by it.

Generally speaking I think our expectations lean toward thinking some species we aren't familiar with are larger than they really are. More seem like that than the other way around. I used to think a Wryneck was thrush-sized or bigger, whereas its tiny. On the other hand, adult male European Otters can be really big and bulky animals, larger than I had imagined.

Many people unfamiliar with the actual animal, tend to think Platypus is larger than it really is, I think. Museum specimens of the Thylacine too, nearly always prove it in reality to be rather a smaller animal than one might expect from old photos, the literature etc. But as Chlidonias said, on the other hand, the Takin is a good example of an animal being bigger than might have originally been thought too.
 
Fossas are very much smaller than I expected
 
Pertinax said:
Museum specimens of the Thylacine too, nearly always prove it in reality to be rather a smaller animal than one might expect from old photos, the literature etc.
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They look a lot bigger in the old photos because people were generally smaller back then and people are in the photos with them. In the photos they (the thylacines) are also usually dead and strung up too - which extends their body size out...

And I agree - they are much smaller than people expect.
 
Aardvarks for me, I don't know how big I thought they were but seeing one in the flesh threw me completely! Also never expecyed warthogs to be as large as they are, probably due to The Lion King!

And as a very young child I expected wolverines to be roughly the size of a small bear, boy was I shocked when I saw one in a nature documentary a couple of years later! :p
 
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Grant Rhino said:
They look a lot bigger in the old photos because people were generally smaller back then and people are in the photos with them. In the photos they (the thylacines) are also usually dead and strung up too - which extends their body size out...

And I agree - they are much smaller than people expect.
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Both very true observations.;) In the 'trophy' shots they are either stretched by hanging down, or laterally to make them look as impressive as possible. And yes, in the old zoo shots with people in them, smaller folk equals larger -looking animals.
 
I was surprised when I saw my first Aardvark and North American Porcupine, both species were much bigger than I expected.
On the other hand, Amazon River Dolphin was smaller than I imagined.
 
When I saw a elephant for the first time in a few years, I was shocked at how large their heads are compared to the size of the rest of their bodies.

The reason I hadn't seen any in a few years is because I went through a period of time when I stopped liking zoos as much as I do now.
 
Camels always surprise me with how tall they are. It's my understanding that they are taller than horses, which catches me off-guard because I always imagine riding mounts as being roughly horse-sized.

When I visited the Georgia Aquarium, the whale sharks were slightly less impressive than I imagined, but still bigger than anything else I've come close to. The manta rays, however, were surprisingly large themselves; bigger than a human being, and that much is obvious even from a distance!
 
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