What is/are the worst kinds of zoo visitors?

The problem is that sometimes those signs can have the opposite impact. You put up a sign telling folks not to tap the glass, for instance, and now all the visitors can think about is tapping the glass...
 
Loud people / people who dont gaf about the animals wellbeing.
People who will just yell in zoos no matter how close the the animals really annoy me
like once I was at a zoo and there was a capybara then all of a sudden this lady screams ''is that a capybara!?'' and it was clear she startled the animal but she didnt care went over and kept trying to get the animals attention, really made me annoyed
 
Aardwolf said:
The problem is that sometimes those signs can have the opposite impact. You put up a sign telling folks not to tap the glass, for instance, and now all the visitors can think about is tapping the glass...
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I agree, and most guests rarely glance at signs (I know as I used to do this myself) so either way they are redundant. Zoo's should post volunteers or educators at enclosures where guests are notoriously misbehaved, to really put the metaphorical foot down.
 
People who don't read the signs and call an orangutan a chimpanzee, or a tiger a lion, etc.

And also, people who don't listen to the reminders over the PA system not to feed animals, smoke or vape, etc. Those reminders are put out there regularly, and I've still seen people throwing food to monkeys, or having a sneaky vape in a quiet corner. :mad:
 
The Alligator Lad said:
This is more of an annoyance than anything else, though is still frustrating whenever you hear it: people who don't read the signs, and go up to an Orangutan and go "look at the monkey!" or "look at the crocodile" to an american alligator. Like, its not that hard to glance at a sign for two seconds!
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Plus, people who don't believe the signs. You know the sort of thing: insisting that at animal clearly signed as a turtle is a tortoise because it happens at that moment not to be in the water and so froth.
 
filovirus said:
The one type of zoo visitor that really really makes me angry are the visitors who try and get an animal's attention. And the parents of children who don't dissuade that behavior.

Don't get me wrong- I'm known to approach an enclosure and say "Hi gorgeous!!" or "Hey there [insert cutesy nickname]". But I think there's a big difference between quietly greeting an animal versus trying to get their attention; tutting at them, repeatedly calling their name/shouting at it, tapping at glass, or my least favorite of all- making animal noises at them. Hissing/growing/meowing at big cats, barking and howling at wolves, cawing at birds... it just drives me nuts. I cannot imagine being in the position of the animal, surrounded by people mocking you with loud repetitive noises all day. It just feels disrespectful- it's a hill I'll die on.

I visited my local zoo twice in the last week with two different friends. One was very respectful; pretty quiet, very observant, making comments but not trying to get the animal's attention. The other tutted a lot and while they didn't make a ton of ruckus or animal noises, there was a definite difference in their approach. It got really grating.

That's really the only category that I vehemently hate, though. I hold no resentment towards children below the age of like 10 or 11 in any instance- only their parents. (Once you hit preteen territory my patience wanes lol). I will say that I quite dislike people with huge strollers, like the big covered wagon type cart things... I've never seen someone who both has one of them and is conscious and mindful of the people around them.
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I imagine that the animals like to think what are these apes trying to say? They don't even speak the language correctly lol!
 
I absolutely agree with a lot of the points made here. As a former zookeeper, an in just my opinion, my biggest pet peeve is unengaged visitors. So this is unlikely anyone on these forums. If you've ever approached a zookeeper and had a 20-30 meaningful conversation with them about an important conservation issue, then thank you, sincerely. It is some of the most impactful conservation a zookeeper can do day in and day out. Yes, they have the high standards of welfare daily, yes they contribute genetic diversity and yes they provide crucial funding and research opportunities. But the education is incredibly important and while zookeepers should actively be approaching people to engage them, it goes a long way when guests approach us, and we will definitely speak to our colleagues about those meaningful conversations we had. This is something I will talking about in an upcoming podcast epsiode of mine.

So back to my pet peeve of unengaged visitors. That comes in two forms. Number 1, hoards of people walking down a pathway looking at their phone or their feet like there is a zombie film and dont even bother stopping at an enclosure. Number 2, people claiming they haven't seen any animals and that's usually because they're either the type of person who is number 1, or they just haven't seen any of the iconic species they're expecting to see and anything that isn't deemed cool or mainstream isn't worth looking at.
 
Honestly, kids do not bother me that much. They are still in a learning phase so I take their wrongdoings with a grain of salt (there are exceptions to the rule, though). We would have to blame the parents for their bad behaviour, especially when a father or mother induces their child to do wrong.

The kind of visitors that actually make my blood boil are not even guests, but thieves and vandals. I get furious everytime I hear someone broke into a zoo in the middle of the night and harmed innocent animals for their own delight, like what happened in Adelaide almost forty years ago.
 
Antimony96 said:
Kids aren't the problem--the adults who enable them are. If a toddler bangs on the terrarium glass but her mom immediately pulls her back and tells her to stop, that's a problem solved.
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Indeed. Who it is to blame if a three-year-old toddler chases around a crowned pigeon in a walkthrough aviary? Is it the kid themselves? No. Is it the parents, who let them do it without repercussions? Maybe.
 
Jonny Bloxham said:
I absolutely agree with a lot of the points made here. As a former zookeeper, an in just my opinion, my biggest pet peeve is unengaged visitors. So this is unlikely anyone on these forums. If you've ever approached a zookeeper and had a 20-30 meaningful conversation with them about an important conservation issue, then thank you, sincerely. .
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One Member's Day at Chester zoo I approached a carnivore keeper with a question about a species on his section. Half an hour later we were discussing the conservation of solenodons.
 
I can understand the guests who are there just to have a nice place to walk around and get some exercise. We have a lot of moms (and dads) who are members, who like to meet up to push their strollers through the zoo in the morning. They are just there to give the babies some fresh air, and chat with their other mom friends. I never expect to really engage with them. But the guests who think the animals are there to entertain them? Ugh. The worst.
 
Guests (both children and adults) who try to go past protective barriers. I’ve seen two adult guests standing past a chain barrier next to an active service road just so they could smoke. I’ve also seen many children go off the pathway to run through the surrounding woods, which are often hotspots for copperheads. And I had to get on to two dads who were letting their kids crawl into a hedge that separated the guest path from an active tram road.
 
Parents who don't properly control their demon spawn and let them scream, run, bang on windows or fences and climb things that aren't playground equipment at will, and let them be a general nuisance to other visitors.

People complaining about zoos being sad or bad while at the zoo.
 
The interesting thing to me is that the main public of zoos is families with children, aka the least disciplined age group. So there will always be screaming, running around, banging on glass. You can't avoid it, no matter how much parents try to control their kids (granted, a lot of parents could be more mindful). That is the strange curse of zoos.
 
The people who don't respect the animals and staff. Feeding animals, using flash while in aquariums/nocturnal areas, banging the glass, harassing the farm animals, touching/screaming at the animals. I've seen staff trying to say in a polite way that they shouldn't do that, and most of the time the visitors go full karen mode. I've told some people not to feed the animals or to scream at them and I normaly get bad looks and insults. It just feels bad to see a goat being touched by hundred of children when there's plenty to share, seeing how they feed bears/parrots/elephants, use flash with nocturnal animals/fishes, hit the viewing glass of dolphins/pinnipeds/reptiles exhibits, and adult trying to "imitate" an animal, and only caussing the animal to retreat backstage, normally with carivores/apes. All this people realy make a zoo sound realy bad, and I feel sorry for every animal and staff that has to suffer with this people.
 
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