How many of you would actually go to the tiger exhibit and mess with the tigers?

people have a lot of nerve if they go to a zoo and taunt and mess with WILD animals. I really think it is the peoples fault if they end up doing these things and get injured. It is just the animals extinct

when I was a kid I read how predator animals instinctively would chase after a running animal, so I teased a cougar at the zoo by running back and forth and he followed me around. Then he actually tried getting out of his cage to come after me. He climbed the cage and tried squeezing out of the upper corner of the cage (the cage had a top), getting his arm and leg out and trying to squeeze his head out. I got scared and left.

Later, he saw me from across the park as he was laying down, and when he saw me in the crowd even from far away, he jumped back up and started to try and get out of the cage again.

So animals do react to being teased, and now when I look back it was cruel to do that. The poor creature already lost his freedom and here comes a kid who teases him to boot.

I know some of the animals won't survive in the wild, like an albino tiger because of its color. But that doesn't make it any more bearable for it to be behind bars. I feel bad for some of those animals having to be caged like that. For others it doesn't seem to matter to them, like the lemurs, they always look like they are having fun.

But I was a kid when I teased the cougar, I didn't know any better.

I wouldn't think of teasing an animal now.

The animal did not choose to be there, and it doesn't make you brave to taunt a locked up animal. I have been to the zoo and have seen people who obviously have not grown up around animals behave in very weird ways. They just don't know. They laugh at the reproductive organs and make fun of the differences in an animal from humans (I don't understand what gets people off sometimes)? It is like middle school children learning about the reproductive system...all giggles and jitters..and these are grown people who should be more mature.

mess with as in how?

All the zoos I've ever been too, the predatory animals (lions, tigers, bears, hippos, cheetahs, polar bears) have been secured behind steel bars, and usually a trench or a moat to prevent interaction between visitors and the animals...

So, how would you get close enough to them to mess with them...and WHY would someone actually do something as moronic as that?

Death wish pernaps?

I wouldn't mess with any wild animals whether in the zoo or not.

You wouldn't catch me in a zoo to begin with. More like an amusement park.

It's not wise to mess with any animal in the zoo. Who says a penguin can't peck your eyes out? :x

oh heck no! tigers belong far away and only seen with binoculars! even taking pictures may incrimanate the wild animals..

Yes, I wouldn't mess with them either. Why ask for trouble? There are rules everywhere and everyone should do their best to follow them. Sometimes its for our safety.

I wouldn't personally because I love animals too much, but I suppose it's tempting to some because they feel that the animal can't retaliate....

just don't go the the zoo, then you'll be safe from the animals