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Is it normal for adults to not know basic animal facts?
like knowing that insects (and a bunch of other invertebrates) are animals too. That turtles and tortoises can't come out of there shells.
I am asking this because I am a regular volunteer and I was volunteering with a group of college students for an event at the zoo and one student thought that another name for a mountain lion was a bobcat and he was telling that to guests. Another student thought that turtles can come out of there shells while tortoises can't.... since they are in college they should know animal facts like these.....
another time a zoo guest (who was an adult) asked where the feet of the snake that I was holding are?
another guest asked if I was holding a frog... it was a lizard
and there have been countless other things adult guests have said.
I am in Southern California and is it normal to not know basic animal knowledge? Or you can answer Should people know basic animal knowledge?
I might reword this if it sounds confusing.
if you guys are curious of other questions/comments adults have asked/said here's a few more.
"Look it's a baby porcupine!" (it was a hedgehog almost everyone gets it wrong)
"Did you sedate the snake so it doesn't bite?" ( I was holding a snake)
" Did you put oil on the snake?"
" are otters rodents?"
"are rabbits rodents?"
"It that snake poisonous" (not the correct term and I would not be holding a venomous snake for your children to pet)
6 Answers
- JLv 47 years agoFavorite Answer
It's not that it's not normal so much as it's sad. The amount of ignorance in our population is astounding. From basic animal facts, to basic geography, to basic history to basic earth science. Your examples made me laugh at first. What dumb a$$es. But it's a culmination of people like that who are guilty of poor stewardship of all of Earth's species, which are in a rapid decline. If people aren't inquisitive enough to learn basic things about the earth and it's creature inhabitants, then they should teach it in college as a core requirement, as demonstrated by your ignorant peers. Given that, ultimately it's the to zoo's responsibility to impart correct information to the public. If they didn't brief the volunteers, they should have. I wonder what a turtle without a shell looks like. Or a snake hiding his feet. Here kitty, kitty......
- L. E. GantLv 77 years ago
Part of the problem is that many people don't know how to think. It doesn't matter whether they are college student, graduates or other adults. They may know the facts, but putting the facts together does not always come easily to them.
So, they might know the facts, but the reality of the actual animal is not something they can extend their knowledge to.
Basically, you're hitting the same thing as I found as a tutor in computing -- students might use computers, but many of them only know how to use an application of play games, and nothing about how the computer actually works.
- 7 years ago
Yes. Ppl know things n ppl don't know things. Not everyone has the same knowledge
- 7 years ago
Yes it is, people don't have a clue about animals because they are only interested in their own species.
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- 7 years ago
This is definitely not normal. These are just individuals of lower intelligence than usual.
