Ignorance at the zoo
Sunday, September 16th, 2007 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tsaikoWhere have I been the last few days? Well, I made the mistake of getting a game called Zoo Tycoon for PC. Hehehehe. Yeah, there goes my evenings. And I really should be working on my Halloween SMP story instead. ^^;
In honor of the game, and to get![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miome and myself out of the house, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo. It was smaller than the one in NC, but that doesn't surprise me. It's near downtown Indianapolis. What was I expecting? While the animals were great, the people were simply something else.
Now keep in mind, I come from North Carolina, also known as prime redneck country. I would regularly go to the county fair, which as Jeff Foxworthy once said is where you go if you ever want to feel good about your family. I have seen the most backwards, ignorant people, close-minded people you could ever meet from North Carolina in my life. Indiana has them beat hands down.
I'm talking about people that were walking, talking poster children for stereotypes. Mullets. Missing teeth. Dirty clothes. Smoking despite the five million "This zoo is a smoke free area." To give you an example, we were in the forest section of the zoo. One of the exhibits had a muntjac. Miome and I were at the exhibit, looking at the deer. Up came this family. One guy repeated the name "muntjac" five million times like the word was the best joke ever. Another joked about how he wished he had his hunting rifle, but then again there was enough antler on it to make it worth while. Still another guy kept asking about making it bark, how did you make it bark, when was it going to bark, like the deer was some trick dog there for his amusement. The shining, crowning moment of this encounter was when grandma, in her haste to see muntjac, literally pressed against Miome until she was forced to move or get felt up even more by this old lady. Holy cow people. I swear the deer isn't going anywhere. You can wait a few seconds for us to move.
I wish I could say this this was an isolated incident. It wasn't.
For a laugh or two, here are a few of the funniest incorrect statements I heard people say at the zoo:
- People trying their best to figure out what the guinea fowl were. They were in a large enclosure with a variety of a variety of African animals, and there was no sign saying what they were. People called them chickens, ugly peacocks, and my personal favorite, emus.
- The guy who upon seeing the greater kudu, especially the male with his spiral horns, promptly said they were mule deer. WTF? What kind of mutant mule deer have you been looking at to mistake those two?
- The one lady who thought the marabou stork was a pelican. Like the mule deer guy, I'd love to know what kind of mutant pelicans you've been looking at.
- There was the usual bunch of yahoos who took one look at the african wild dog and promptly announced that it was a hyena. This happens at every zoo I've ever been to. Sigh.
- The guy who kept telling his kids that the rhinos were being hunted to extinction over their tusks. Not horns, tusks. I about hurt myself not laughing.
- Lorikeets getting called canaries.
- The lemurs being called "monkeys" is pretty standard as well. I've had to correct myself a time or two when I first see them from a distance or when I forget their name and my mind picks the first thing it can come up with. The ring tailed lemurs getting called chimpanzees? That's a new one on me.
In honor of the game, and to get
miome and myself out of the house, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo. It was smaller than the one in NC, but that doesn't surprise me. It's near downtown Indianapolis. What was I expecting? While the animals were great, the people were simply something else.Now keep in mind, I come from North Carolina, also known as prime redneck country. I would regularly go to the county fair, which as Jeff Foxworthy once said is where you go if you ever want to feel good about your family. I have seen the most backwards, ignorant people, close-minded people you could ever meet from North Carolina in my life. Indiana has them beat hands down.
I'm talking about people that were walking, talking poster children for stereotypes. Mullets. Missing teeth. Dirty clothes. Smoking despite the five million "This zoo is a smoke free area." To give you an example, we were in the forest section of the zoo. One of the exhibits had a muntjac. Miome and I were at the exhibit, looking at the deer. Up came this family. One guy repeated the name "muntjac" five million times like the word was the best joke ever. Another joked about how he wished he had his hunting rifle, but then again there was enough antler on it to make it worth while. Still another guy kept asking about making it bark, how did you make it bark, when was it going to bark, like the deer was some trick dog there for his amusement. The shining, crowning moment of this encounter was when grandma, in her haste to see muntjac, literally pressed against Miome until she was forced to move or get felt up even more by this old lady. Holy cow people. I swear the deer isn't going anywhere. You can wait a few seconds for us to move.
I wish I could say this this was an isolated incident. It wasn't.
For a laugh or two, here are a few of the funniest incorrect statements I heard people say at the zoo:
- People trying their best to figure out what the guinea fowl were. They were in a large enclosure with a variety of a variety of African animals, and there was no sign saying what they were. People called them chickens, ugly peacocks, and my personal favorite, emus.
- The guy who upon seeing the greater kudu, especially the male with his spiral horns, promptly said they were mule deer. WTF? What kind of mutant mule deer have you been looking at to mistake those two?
- The one lady who thought the marabou stork was a pelican. Like the mule deer guy, I'd love to know what kind of mutant pelicans you've been looking at.
- There was the usual bunch of yahoos who took one look at the african wild dog and promptly announced that it was a hyena. This happens at every zoo I've ever been to. Sigh.
- The guy who kept telling his kids that the rhinos were being hunted to extinction over their tusks. Not horns, tusks. I about hurt myself not laughing.
- Lorikeets getting called canaries.
- The lemurs being called "monkeys" is pretty standard as well. I've had to correct myself a time or two when I first see them from a distance or when I forget their name and my mind picks the first thing it can come up with. The ring tailed lemurs getting called chimpanzees? That's a new one on me.
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 01:17 pm (UTC)I love zoos, but your tales of Indianapolians frighten me.
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 01:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 02:12 pm (UTC)The guy who upon seeing the greater kudu, especially the male with his spiral horns, promptly said they were mule deer.
And doesn't it just make you want to be out in the woods with him during deer hunting season? I mean, his eyesight's obviously terrific...>_>
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 04:23 pm (UTC)Not that that makes me feel any safer...
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 02:47 pm (UTC)...how does one make a muntjac bark?
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 03:30 pm (UTC)*cries some more*
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 04:10 pm (UTC)Lorikeet? Post-modern parrot.
African wild dog? Piebald puppy.
Marabou stork? Vulturey Thing with badass beak.
Greater Kudu? stripy humped deer (and honestly, "mule deer" sounds just about right as a description of what it looks like, assuming he wasn't thinking that was the proper name)
Guinea foul? Dinner. :D
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 04:26 pm (UTC)Guinea foul is about what I think of those things. XD
(no subject)
Date: 9/16/07 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 9/17/07 01:29 am (UTC)Be warned.. I'm sure there's the equivalent anywhere you go in the world ::scary music here::
^_^|/
(no subject)
Date: 9/17/07 04:53 am (UTC)You think the greater number of people in the world are partially blind? I'm sure every single zoo posts up signs with information and the name of the animal in the exhibit.