poor cousin

Each time I go to a zoo (particularly Edinburgh) I like the idea of them less and less. The new and improved chimp enclosure is somewhat better than their previous home but just highlights how extremely manky the other primates' housings are getting. Lots of the bigger animals have worn deep ruts in the ground from constantly walking backwards and forwards along the same short path. The polar bear enclosure always looked horrifyingly small when it was empty and now seems smaller and crapper than ever, especially for a captive which originally came from the wild rather than one born in captivity, though it was pointed out that it'll shortly be shifted to a much larger custom-built facility (though presumably still a place where it'll get fish thrown at it rather than somewhere it can jump on its own seals). As always, the most annoying things are the people; dingbats who can't distinguish between monkeys and apes attempting to anthropomorphise about the stances, expressions and behaviours of the latter for children who aren't listening as they're just banging on the glass as hard as they can to "get the monkeys to do something funny". The zoo could improve things by having more and better information displayed on the infrequent information boards but particularly by having large illuminated signs stating "chimpanzees are apes, NOT monkeys" all around the human side of the enclosure. Much of the information is aimed at kids but it's still far too basic; the museum had far better great ape comparative anatomy than the expensive-looking but extremely over-simplified display in the zoo. Attenborough documentaries are generally much better and show most of the beings in their natural environments exhibiting their normal behaviours rather than being thrown cabbages and lumps of cheese out of a bucket.