ZooChat "Slang"

MonkeyBat

MonkeyBat

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I've noticed some people on here have lingo for certain animals, zoos, or just zoo vocabulary. I'll name a few I've observed

SDZ - San Diego Zoo
SDZSP - San Diego Zoo Safari Park
ASCO - Asian small clawed otter
BoP - Bird of paradise
OHDZ - Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo

To better understand this language, please share any that you use or have observed. It doesn't have to be abbreviations either, it could be nicknames or stuff like that.
 
Some more animals:

FF - flying fox
NARO - North American river otter
RRH - red river hog
RTL - ring-tailed lemur
Retic - reticulated giraffe
Vamp - vampire bat

At least in the US, most zoos and aquariums with 3 or more words in their name can be referred to by acronyms, but the ones below are a few more that are usually referred to by their acronyms on here:

ASDM - Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
DAK - Disney's Animal Kingdom
DWA - Dallas World Aquarium

Other terminology:

AZA/EAZA - American and European zoo associations respectively. There are several others mentioned less frequently, generally also by their acronyms.
BTS - behind the scenes
ZTL - Zootierliste (public online database of European zoos and their holdings)

and finally a numbering system for individual zoo holdings: male.female.unknown (ex. 1.1.1)
 
Imo - in my opinion
Generic giraffe - hybrid giraffe
(only once) STL - St. Louis Zoo
SSP - Species survival plan
ABC animal - extremely popular species like meerkats, elephants, or tigers.
WCS - Wildlife Conservation Society in New York that works with Bronx zoo
 
MonkeyBat said:
I've noticed some people on here have lingo for certain animals, zoos, or just zoo vocabulary. I'll name a few I've observed

SDZ - San Diego Zoo
SDZSP - San Diego Zoo Safari Park
ASCO - Asian small clawed otter
BoP - Bird of paradise
OHDZ - Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo

To better understand this language, please share any that you use or have observed. It doesn't have to be abbreviations either, it could be nicknames or stuff like that.
Click to expand...

Yes, I struggled with "ASCO" for a while in both understanding and using it as it translates as "disgust" in Spanish.
 
Westcoastperson said:
Imo - in my opinion

ABC animal - extremely popular species like meerkats, elephants, or tigers.
Click to expand...
Actually "ABC animal" is the only term that I have only ever heard in the Zoo Chat community. All the others (at least from English-language countries) are used in the broader Zoo community and often in the general community as well.
 
Well, a lot of the things posted thus far comprise commonplace abbreviations which aren't restricted to Zoochat (and in the case of a few of those posted by @Onychorhynchus coronatus have probably never been posted on the forum before so don't count as commonplace for our purposes anyhow :p )

But here's a few:

Lucky Bastard Award
Lesser Fiijian Troll
Bunny-hugger
Heinz 57 tiger/giraffe/lion etc
 
MRJ said:
Actually "ABC animal" is the only term that I have only ever heard in the Zoo Chat community. All the others (at least from English-language countries) are used in the broader Zoo community and often in the general community as well.
Click to expand...

TeaLovingDave said:
Well, a lot of the things posted thus far comprise commonplace abbreviations which aren't restricted to Zoochat
Click to expand...

I interpreted the OP as having meant any terminology that is not familiar to people who aren't well-versed in the zoo community or industry, or that is used colloquially here often enough that new forum members may be confused about their meaning. At least from my experience, I've seen few terms that are exclusive to our site besides references to internal members or events; I was even under the impression that "ABC animal" was a term used outside our forum (though I may be wrong; I can't recall specifically seeing it somewhere else).
 
Coelacanth18 said:
I interpreted the OP as having meant any terminology that is not familiar to people who aren't well-versed in the zoo community or industry, or that is used colloquially here often enough that new forum members may be confused about their meaning. At least from my experience, I've seen few terms that are exclusive to our site besides references to internal members or events; I was even under the impression that "ABC animal" was a term used outside our forum (though I may be wrong; I can't recall specifically seeing it somewhere else).
Click to expand...
Looking at the first post you are probably right, although the thread title gives a different impression. Of course many terms can be incredibly local. Here are a few from round here:
OBP = orange-bellied parrot
a little more obscure:
hee-haw = helmeted honeyeater
while in the tourism industry the little penguins on Phillip Island are often referred to as "the ducks".
 
MonkeyBat said:
OHDZ - Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo
Click to expand...

I've yet to ever see this one before. Most of us drop the "Henry Doorly" part and just refer to it as Omaha.

One other common one is MBA for Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Generally most of the abbreviations are used outside Zoochat, as has been said, and thus aren't technically Zoochat slang. I've seen quite a number of the ones listed so far places other than Zoochat and the associated discord server. @TeaLovingDave is the closest to actual Zoochat slang I think, rather than general abbreviations.
 
And of course member abbrevations, which can also be useful:

TLD - TeaLovingDave
Chli - Chlidonias
Sim - Simon Hampel
Thylo - ThylacineAlive
OC - Onychorynchus coronatus
ZF15 - Zoofan15
Funky - Funky Gibbon

Think that's more or less it for the more widespread ones, have also heard AD in relation to Arizona Docent etc.

HWP - Highland Wildlife Park, also.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Well, a lot of the things posted thus far comprise commonplace abbreviations which aren't restricted to Zoochat (and in the case of a few of those posted by @Onychorhynchus coronatus have probably never been posted on the forum before so don't count as commonplace for our purposes anyhow :p )

But here's a few:

Lucky Bastard Award
Lesser Fiijian Troll
Bunny-hugger
Heinz 57 tiger/giraffe/lion etc
Click to expand...
A term I’ve been known to use for a certain type of zookeeper is ‘goat botherer’:)
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Well, a lot of the things posted thus far comprise commonplace abbreviations which aren't restricted to Zoochat (and in the case of a few of those posted by @Onychorhynchus coronatus have probably never been posted on the forum before so don't count as commonplace for our purposes anyhow :p )
Click to expand...
I should clarify then half of mine was meant as just important nicknames people should know not explicitly names I have only heard here. Although I have never heard anyone use Imo besides on this website.
 
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