Trips to the zoo are meant to be fun, exciting and educational. You get to see animals from all over the world, and maybe they're playing with each other, or maybe they're completely sacked out. Either way, zoos provide people everywhere with the chance to see animals they've never seen before, and teach them something about said animals. However, this educational opportunity is only successful if zoo visitors can correctly identify the animals they're looking at.
It shouldn't be difficult, right? Wrong. Despite the presence of signs with the name of the animal and some facts about it at practically all zoo exhibits, people can still misidentify an animal. This not only results in learning the wrong information, which can be argued is worse than not learning anything, but it also says something rather sad about some members of society's lack of ability or awareness to read a sign within five feet of their eyes.
To illustrate my point, what is this animal?
For anyone who doesn't know, it's an okapi. They live in the dense rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Though not considered an endangered species, they're rarely seen in the wild due to their shy nature, and are only featured in 16 zoos in the United States. So, it's not unusual to have never seen one. However, they're rather unique in appearance.
On a recent visit to the Bronx Zoo, one of the 16 zoos with an okapi, there was a large group of people standing in front of the exhibit. The okapi was calmly munching an afternoon snack of leaves and was in perfect sight from the viewing area. Many visitors were commenting on how beautiful he was, and one woman said, "Ooh, look at the zebra! He's so cute!"
Does this look like the animal pictured above?
Both have stripes on their legs, but the similarity ends there. Okapis are actually more closely related to giraffes.
In any event, even if okapis and zebras were very closely related, they are clearly not the same thing. Zebras are extremely common animals in zoos, museums, and many forms of media, so you've probably seen one somewhere, in some form, at least once. Therefore, even if you don't know the name for the okapi, you should see it and know that it's not a zebra. And then you look at the sign, read that it is an okapi, and voilà! You have learned something new on your trip to the zoo.
A lot of people don't take the time to read the signs at zoos, but I issue a challenge to you: The next time you're at a zoo, read one sign about an animal you don't know a lot about. You might learn something really interesting. Or maybe you'll pick a sign you find boring, but at least you'll be learning something and getting more out of your visit than if you classified any animal with stripes as a zebra.
