Zoo crazy

[Reyneth]

I live in a city with a nice zoo. And a very nice feature of this nice zoo is that for xxxxxx county residents, we get free admission on Mondays, something I have taken advantage of often. Because of Memorial Day, today was free instead - which made me very happy since I haven't been able to go recently due to work and my new job has me working on Mondays.

Beautiful day, I slather up the sunscreen and get all of my camera equipment together. As I get to the parking lot, I notice lots and lots and lots of school buses. Oh, joy. A few field trips, cool. But there were at least 15-20 different schools there! Instead of taking the tram up to my favorite part of the zoo (would've been at least a 20-30 min wait), I hoofed it up the significant hill.

At the cafe there, I paid for a bottle of water, got my change back and then waited a good 4-5 minutes. The girl who was waiting on me disappeared! Without any explanation, nothing. Just up and left. Luckily, another cashier didn't have any people and noticed I had been there so she got me my water. But seriously, what was that about?

On to exhibits. At the cheetahs (my favorite place), I encountered a wonderful mom who told her kids that came up by me "Don't bump the lady, be careful, she's taking pictures." So I told them where the one cheetah was hiding and some little facts about the animals.

But that was to be the last good experience. In the primate/cats building, it was a mob scene. I would wait at the exhibit until the people in front of me went on to something else until I'd get to where I wanted to take photos. But then the kids would shove in in front of me. Ok, they're short, but they were now in my way! I waited, they could wait too! The first time, I did a short "excuse me!" but the adult with them was encouraging them to get up close to see the baby right in front of me. grrrrrrr

Moving on to another exhibit set in the corner (these were all in rooms with glass viewing windows), I saw adults pick up the rope blocking off the space about 6" from the window not once, but on two different occasions! Clouded leopards are shy things, and there was a sign there to that extent, that the rope is there to keep them from feeling threatened. Several other times I saw kids inside the ropes, but for a parent/teacher to encourage it? I was SO mad but couldn't find an employee fast enough to do anything about it. I could have said something to those adults, but I was already a little worried about my (large) camera in the mob of kids and you never know......

Mixed in with that were kids screaming en mass inside of the aquarium, running everywhere and being generally obnoxious. I'm disgusted they were able to get away with it - when we went on trips with my school, we were under threats of death to behave. And *none* of the adults "in charge" did anything that I ever saw to stop this behavior.

I had a nice day and got at least one FABULOUS photo that I will enter in the zoo's contest (a little baby monkey with his hand up to his face so it looks like he is sucking his thumb - I'll post it once I have it uploaded and fixed up) plus got to talk to someone in charge of taking care of the cheetahs on a random spur of the moment thing - I wish I could have thought more, now I have tons of questions! - but I really wished I hadn't had to do with the masses of kids and the adults who did nothing to make them behave and follow general zoo rules. There is nothing wrong with teaching children how to behave in public places, especially in special situations like around wild animals but these adults apparently thought there was!

[myswtghst]

I used to live in Lansing, MI, and worked at the little area zoo up there, first in Parking/Admissions, and then as a keeper intern. The things the parents/teachers/chaperones let the kids get away with shocked the heck out of me, at least at the start. I had to spend so many days getting kids away from exhibits, because they don't understand that just because it looks cute doesn't mean it won't bite or get agitated.

Question, also. For the free admission days, do they check your license? Because we had to check a driver's license or have a piece of mail with your local address on it to verify that you lived within the city/county limits to let you in for the discount/free, and people used to raise all kinds of holy hell about that. Just curious, thanks!

[Sofar]

During a visit to our lovely Woodland Park Zoological Gardens, I once asked a small child, and his father, to kindly stop shaking the wire screen that was separating us from an adorable and fairly toothy palm civet, a very large specimen at that. Mostly I thought the wire screen looked kind of flimsy, but I told them that they appeared to be frightning the thing, (in an "attack the bars" sort of way.) The father responded, "What does it have to fear from us? We're humans!"

[mariamousie1]

During a visit to our lovely Woodland Park Zoological Gardens, I once asked a small child, and his father, to kindly stop shaking the wire screen that was separating us from an adorable and fairly toothy palm civet, a very large specimen at that. Mostly I thought the wire screen looked kind of flimsy, but I told them that they appeared to be frightning the thing, (in an "attack the bars" sort of way.) The father responded, "What does it have to fear from us? We're humans!"

...

I think my brain just broke.

[JustADude]

"What does it have to fear from us? We're humans!"

Should I list alphabetically, proximally, or by threat-index? Either way, I'll probably have to take about 6 full post-buffers to do it.

Humans are the #1 predator species on the PLANET, dingus.

[tollbaby]

*sigh* people is stupid.

I looooooove going to the zoo to take pics. I got some INCREDIBLE pics of a red-tailed rat snake, a chameleon, the two tigers and the bison last time I was at the zoo (I'm strictly amateur, and very critical of my own photos, but I was genuinely proud of those). We're going to the Milwaukee zoo next weekend, and I'll try to borrow my ex's digital rebel, but I dunno if he'll let me take it stateside LOL (he's let me borrow it a couple of times now for trips to the lake & such... it's SOOOOO much fancier than my little Fuji S3000! *drool*)

[Jack7957]

If you could figure out which school the future SCs belong to, you could contact their principal and/or the superitendent.

[Pagan]

Reyneth, at least the little blighters at your zoo didn't do this:

http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=20893

Nobody can figure out how these little monsters thought this would be ok to do.

[tollbaby]

any bets a follow-up story will appear with the parents' claiming that their little angels are being unfairly persecuted for their classmates' actions?

[Becks]

As much as I LOVE zoos, and children, I HATE going to the zoo when there are field trips. Too much noise, running around, etc. Adults either can't or won't control them. (Hey, aren't there rules that say for every x number of children, there has to be one adult?)

For the free admission days, do they check your license? Because we had to check a driver's license or have a piece of mail with your local address on it to verify that you lived within the city/county limits to let you in for the discount/free

I know the Milwaukee County zoo has a set up like that. When I went to WI last year and my sister took me there (I the zoo!!!!!!) I got the free admission, too, even though I now live in NJ. Is it because we were in the same car? Because we're identical twins?

[chainedbarista]

The father responded, "What does it have to fear from us? We're humans!"

the stupidity of this comment reminds me of the poor meerkats who died because of an idiot mother refusing to keep charge of her equally stupid offspring; what do they have to fear indeed.

don't get me started on what animals have to fear from us; watch animal planet, genius, and you'll know (but not understand, i'd wager).

[Antisocial_Worker]

the stupidity of this comment reminds me of the poor meerkats who died because of an idiot mother refusing to keep charge of her equally stupid offspring; what do they have to fear indeed.

I wonder whatever happened to that family. It seemed at the time they were getting some pretty bad publicity from that event.

[Pagan]

any bets a follow-up story will appear with the parents' claiming that their little angels are being unfairly persecuted for their classmates' actions?

I can't find, and can't remember, what they did to the little shits. It seems to me there's a fine, community service, they have maintain a C average, and some other stuff. Mayor Marty lifted the ban on the whole school, though. I think he realized that it wasn't fair to punish the whole school for these four idiots. I don't know if it was in the article that I posted, but apparently a couple of them have gang affiliations, too! Oh, and let's not forget another two girls shoplifted from the gift shop!

The parents didn't actually come out and say that they're angels were innocent. They pulled out the excuses that they were poor, single parents, etc. Ya know plenty of people have grown up poor and been raised by single parents, but didn't feel it necessary to go scratch aquarium tanks!

Can you tell I'm still a bit pissed about this?

[myswtghst]

The father responded, "What does it have to fear from us? We're humans!"

See, what most people seem to forget/not realize, is that they have a lot to fear from the animals. Any time those animals feel threatened, they will fight back. And some of the cutest-looking animals are the most vicious. For example, river otters and red pandas are both so sweet to look at but can take off your fingers if you get your hand in their face.

And these poor animals do not need to be stressed out more than a lot of them already are--they spend half their time unable to hide from people like they would in the wild, they don't need people banging on their cages and agitating them.

Grr. Can you tell I get worked up about this topic?

[BookstoreEscapee]

They pulled out the excuses that they were poor, single parents, etc.

This will be their rationale for why they shouldn't have to pay, when they go to court...