Fake Owls

[LillFilly]

I went to a small animal rehabilitation center/zoo last week. They had many aviaries with eagles, falcons, hawks and owls. In one was a Snowy Owl perched by its water dish, very still, like it was just looking at itself. A couple of girl teens came up behind me and one squealed:

"SQUUEEEEE OMG look, it's a fake one of those owls from the Harry Potter World!" And was saying to her friends how fake it looked. Not sure if she thought that type of owl was made-up for the books, or if she thought it was a stuffed owl.

Never mind that the owl turned and looked at us when she started jabbering. I even pointed-out that it was a real owl; this is a zoo, not a disney ride. She insisted it looked animatronic and flounced-off with her groupies, so I just let it go and kept admiring the beautiful owl, who I SWEAR rolled it's eyes at her!

[dalesys]

...the beautiful owl, who I SWEAR rolled it's eyes at her!

Dreaming of the rats nesting in her head, no doubt.

[PepperElf]

that reminds me of that john cleese zoo movie, where the zoo was going to be shut down cos the animals weren't exciting/dangerous enough

sounds like she thought the zoo was the same thing as seaworld, where the animals do tricks to entertain you.

[ShinyGreenApple]

What a riddikulus person.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I have never seen such profound and crippling stupidity as I have when I worked at the zoo. Hands down. No contest.

And when you consider I also used to to wait tables, that's saying something.

What's scary is that the sort of stupidity you see is so over the top, if someone were to tell you about it, you'd probably think they were telling a tall tale unless you'd witnessed it yourself.

I have seen a man dangle his toddler over the tiger pit. I have seen people practically hurl themselves in front of the oncoming wheels of a bucket truck. I have seen a teenager not only not know what the hell a rhino was, but then turn around and mispronounce the word when reading it off the sign as if she'd never seen it before.



Best not to argue with such people. You can fix ignorance, but you can't fix stupidty.

[Bloodsoul]

Can we introduce them to Prince Humperdink's "Zoo of Death" from The Princess Bride?

Also I am now reminded me of the owl from The Secret of NIMH. *shudders in fear*

[ozcatbug]

I used to work at a theme park that was also a B-grade zoo, meaning we had a small number of animals. I was a ride operator so really the only time I saw any animals was on my way to and from breaks, before the park opened, when some of the animals were walked through the park with their handlers, and when I was working on the north end of our chairlift.

The chairlift took guests (customers) to the Australian animals. From our ride platform you could see the emus, kangaroos, dingos, wombats and our 2 salt-water crocs, Matilda and Goliath. Working at that park for over 2 years, I recall seeing the crocs move exactly 3 times. Most of the time they could have been statues. So one day I am talking with my coworker when I hear a scream. We look at each other and rush to the railing of the ride platform. We look down near the croc enclosure and there is a terrified girl yelling "it moved". My coworker and I shared a look, shrugged and walked back to our proper position.

A couple of minutes later the girl and her friends came up the ramp to get on the chairlift. I had to know what happened so asked. Her reply (it was ten years ago so don't remember exactly) was that the crocodile statue moved, but now she realises it was actually a robot. A robot! This was a theme park that had real kangaroos, koalas, emus, wombats, dingoes, pumas, tigers (that one gives the park location away ), cassowaries, other birds, lizards, snakes, freshwater crocs, and apparently 2 robot salt-water crocs.

An related story involving Goliath was one of the three times I saw him move. I had just seen 2 of the park electronics guys walk past the dingo enclosure. I thought it was strange that they would be in that area of the park as there wasn't anything there that they were responsible for. We had just closed up our ride and were walking down the ramp, when I looked over at the croc enclosure. Goliath was lying beside his pool. He lifted his back leg slowly, then put it down. Then he lifted his other back leg and put it down. Next was one of his front legs, then the other. Finally he lifted his head and opened his huge jaws. He closed his mouth and put his head back down on the ground. I turned to my coworker and said "If I didn't know better I would swear the the electronics guys were just testing out the movement of the robot crocodile." He looked at me and told me that he was thinking the same thing. So while I am pretty sure Goliath wasn't a robot, there is that little smidgen of doubt.

[MoonCat]

I have seen a teenager not only not know what the hell a rhino was, but then turn around and mispronounce the word when reading it off the sign as if she'd never seen it before.

Saw something very much like this today! The zoo had a special $1.00 admission day, so my sisters & I went. We were looking at some capybaras (which had babies! Cute cute!) and I heard this teenage girl say, "That's a...." She paused, looked straight at the sign telling what it was in large letters, and then she said, "lord knows what that is," and walked off.

All I could think was, "Reading used to be mandatory in schools..."

[RecoveringKinkoid]

You know, I can forgive someone for maybe not knowing what a capybara is, or how to pronounce the word, but a rhino? What five year old doesn't know what a rhino is?

More exotic animals I can get, but your standard preschool animals like rhinos, hippos...COWS AND GOATS for frick's sake, I would think someone old enough to get their learner's permit should at least have heard of.

Shoulda told her the capy was a giant rat and watched her freak out.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

*sigh* this is why zoos exist... to educate poor schlubs. I'm sure some of them do get educated, honest...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, the teenagers that stuck his fingers into the Leadbeaters Cockatoo enclosure sure did get some schooling.

That Leadbeaters was notorious for killing squirrels. And we'd warned the kid.

Is it wrong of us that we laughed when we heard the kid screaming?

[fireheart]

A couple of minutes later the girl and her friends came up the ramp to get on the chairlift. I had to know what happened so asked. Her reply (it was ten years ago so don't remember exactly) was that the crocodile statue moved, but now she realises it was actually a robot. A robot! This was a theme park that had real kangaroos, koalas, emus, wombats, dingoes, pumas, tigers (that one gives the park location away ), cassowaries, other birds, lizards, snakes, freshwater crocs, and apparently 2 robot salt-water crocs.

Would this be a certain theme park where they filmed a show that was famous for the Turkey Slap?

[ozcatbug]

Would this be a certain theme park where they filmed a show that was famous for the Turkey Slap?

You got it.

I was there when they first built the BB house. I was so happy when I left that I didn't have to watch that show that I skipped the next 2 seasons. Ok, we didn't have to watch BB but it made it so much easier to interact with guests when they asked about it. Bonus of working there was getting free tickets to the evictions. That was fun.

[Seshat]

I have seen a man dangle his toddler over the tiger pit.

:whimper:

Hey kid, would you like to be tiger food?

[Andara Bledin]

Also I am now reminded me of the owl from The Secret of NIMH. *shudders in fear*

Mmm... Now that is a great movie owl.

COWS AND GOATS for frick's sake...

Honestly, other than a couple of nursery tales and discussions like these, nobody really talks about goats any more. Hell, I bet half the people who eat goat cheese couldn't tell you what a goat actually is. *sigh*

^-.-^