FUNNY MOMENTS AT THE ZOO

This wasn't at a zoo, but a game park. There was a chimp in a cage. When my husband got nearer to the cage, the chimp grabbed his glasses off. The chimp did all things to the glasses, throwing it up into the air, passing it from hand to foot etc. The glasses were never harmed, after many minutes of doing this.

We called the zookeeper. The minute that the chimp saw the zookeeper, he threw the glasses on the floor, and with a sly look, stomped on them!

umm..well Ive had some interesting experiences at the Safari at Six Flags....
Monkeys are horny little devils it seems at certain parts of the year...and you know...they arent ashamed of it at all....with a car load of children...with a male monkey 'taking care of himself' while on the hood of your car....is just beyond bad manners
He wasnt alone though..it seems they all needed more attention...and I dont know if thats worse or better.

Rhinos....these big strong fellas seem to be trained by white jeeps or vans...so never ever take a white jeep or van into this safari...unless of course youd like a Rhino to ram you
up close and personal..all part of the Safari experience

Monkeys are always a bit "uninhibited" to say the
least. I remember a few visits to the zoo when my
daughters were quite young and some of those
monkeys were just going at it....I kept trying to
usher to girls to move on to some other site, but
they were glued to the action...and every time we
went to the zoo, the monkey house was one of
their favorites. Two friend of mine recently moved
to Costa Rica, and it seems that their monkeys are
VERY rude. If you get too close to them, they pee
on you. Disgusting.
I remember being on the beach one day, all four of
us, lying on the beach, hanging out....and one of the
girls said something that just got my goat, so I
told her that I hoped a big sea gull came along and
pooped on her head. Not 5 minutes went by before
a seagull flew over us, and pooped right on my
belly..... I thought those daughters of mine would
never stop cackling over it.

DC has some great gorillas, but I dont know if Ill ever go back cuz..they seemed to either really like or really hate me..not sure which but, in a whole crowd of people...suddenly this big guy starts freakin out and comes right up to the glass to take a nice close long look at me..YIKES...everyone else thought it was interesting...yeah..it wasnt them

I used to work in a zoo so I have a ton of stories, but the "love me/ hate me" thing brings to mind the gibbon. Who HATED me. Passionately. He was in a big open island in the middle of the tropics area (Minnesota Zoo), and he would catch a glimpse of me from faaaar away, go swinging over to the branch closest to me, and shriek, jabber, and make extremely threatening faces, then follow me allllll the way around. People would start out giggling, then as he continued to harrass me they'd give me pitying looks and/ or whisper behind their hands about what I must have done to the poor guy to get such a reception.

I talked to the main tropics person and she said it was probably mostly my hair (a lot of it, dark), and that he got to know me because I would go to the tropics exhibit very early, before the zoo opened (to see my pals the dolphins, though, not Mr. Screechy.) I'd make faces back at him now and then and he'd get positively apoplectic. Not my favorite zoo resident.

Sozobe .....what an interesting job that must have
been. Did you stay at this kind of job for very long?
I think it would be fantastic to be around all those
wild animals every day. Although your gibbon
experience sounds pretty bad. Is a gibbon bigger
than a monkey or about the size of a gorilla or
what? When you get the time...I sure would like to
hear some of your zoo stories - sounds great.

gibbon example

Is interesting position, would love to hear more about it, perhaps some more joyful experiences?

This guy was a white-cheeked gibbon:



Looking typically truculent, but not baring fangs in this pic.

Lesse, I'll think of some other stories. It was a great job. Three summers when I was a teenager and wanted to be a naturalist when I grew up. (Too much Gerald Durrell and Jane Goodall.)

zoo
When I was a child back in the dark ages I can remember going to the Oklahoma Zoo with my mother and aunt. It was a wonderous experience, the monkey pit had a pirate's ship and the little dickens were flitting around all over the place - and the exhibits were all so enthralling.

We filnally got the lion exhibit which was a raised cage affair. I was standing there admiring a magnificent male lion when he raised his leg and tickled all over me. Needless to say I was taken home for a bath and change of clothes.

I meant to say Oklahoma City Zoo.

Hello, Babs!

Sorry, no interesting or funny stories from me. Boring, huh?
But I'll tell you what I most enjoy at the zoo (in Melbourne). The Otters! I just LOVE them! Could watch their cheeky & playful antics for hours, especially at feeding time. (In the next cycle I'd love to come back as an otter. What fun they have! )

Oh, & I could watch the giraffes (from the "people enclosure") for hours, too. Poetry in (slow) motion!

The big cats at my local zoo are in pens with thick plexiglas windows between them and the visitors. On one visit, A large crowd of adults and one three-year old girl were looking at a huge tiger. The little girl was about five inches away from the plexiglas. All of a sudden the tiger roared and made a threatening lunge toward the visitors.

Despite the plexiglas, all of the adults jumped two or three feet backward. The little girl didn't even budge. I found it funny that all us adults showed cowardice compared to this sweet little innocent girl who had no idea anything was amiss.

Equus - That REALLY IS a most unusual story. I wonder
why that is - maybe (I can't remember back that far)
there is a time when you don't know fear at all, it must
have been a sight to see - ALL the grownups leaping back
while a tiny little girl doesn't move a muscle - even in the
face of all that muscular feline body hurtling toward her, I
wonder if she just didn't happen to be looking at him, or
PERHAPS, children do not see the world the same way that
we do at all.
*Imagine, at the ages of 3, 4 or 5 & maybe even 6 - before
our world has "thoroughly domesticated" us humans - we
actually DID live in a world completely free from fear.
*I can only remember one day while climbing almost all the
way to the top of a black cherry tree that was at about the
same height as my second floor bedroom window - awareness
hit me - I guess it was that I COULD fall, and be hurt. I do
remember very carefully picking my way back down that
tree, and I really do think that this was the end of my tree
climbing days even though I never had a bad experience,
never fell out of a tree - didn't even KNOW anyone who had
fallen out of a tree.