What, is an Ocelot?

First I have to say this blog is my own thoughts and opinions. It does not reflect the views or thoughts of my work place. Please do not mistake my words for the words of employer. Thank you.

Ok, now on with it. To explain the title, in college I took a class on diction. Diction you say? Yes... I thought it would cover my art credit after switching from acting class because a high school crush ended up being in that same class... however it didn't. haha
Anyway, in my diction class we had a famous writer/ story teller, Lesly Norris (correct me if I'm wrong dad) come to our class to read stories he wrote. In one of his stories a little boy was on an adventure with his dog and he enjoyed making up songs. In his journey he starting singing this song, "what, is an ocelot, does it cost a lot, can you drink it hot? Oh what, is an ocelot, is it big or not, does it have a spot?" (I often sing this song to myself while I clean the ocelot exhibit :) )
For those of you who don't know, an Ocelot is a small spotted cat from South/Central America. (Look it up)

That was a very long intro to this blog, but the point is, lately I've been very bothered with adult knowledge of basic animals. Now, I will tell you that I completely understand that some people aren't familiar with coatis or tapirs or fossa, after all everyone has different interests right? But you'd think that an adult would know basic animals such as tigers, lions, and, elephants, oh my. (haha you thought I'd say bears.) Ones we hear about and see in kid books/puzzles/games all the time.

Today I opened a children's book at costco and one of the pages was "Match the parent animal to the baby" They had zebra, rhino, and giraffe... all simple and the babies just looked like they made the adult pictures smaller, but the part that got me was they had an African elephant and the "baby" was an adult Asian elephant! I groaned out loud! I understand they are just kids, but why couldn't they just make the picture smaller like the other ones instead of making it wrong?!
I also witness adults telling their child that the leopard in front of them is a tiger or the full grown elephant who is about 10' tall is a baby... or better yet a turtle. I can accept that people mistake leopards for jaguars or vice versa.. even if they mistake it for a cheetah (all yellowish spotted cats), but for a very large orange-ish stripped tiger?! The best part is the information sign that is a foot in front of their face with a very large "AMUR LEOPARD" on it.
Another example, (I'm very sorry for those of you involved, but I had to tell this story. I won't name names). Playing a game of scategories the letter was B and one of the topics was amphibian/reptile.... for those of you who never played, you fill in the topic with a word that starts with the letter... (example, bull frog, or bearded dragon) one person put Bat. I laughed so hard I was crying, but inside I was also saddened. How can you mistake a fuzzy thing with wings for something that has scales or lives part or all of it's life in water?
Now I will admit it was late and I know it can be awkward around a group of people and sometimes your brain mixes things up and the timer was running down and you write what comes to mind, but if you really sat down and thought about it and took your time and couldn't tell a bat was a mammal... you need to review your basic animal knowledge.

What bothers me the most about these things, as an adult you are supposed to educate your children, but if you can't get it right, you're setting a bad example. One day I had a tortoise out for people to touch. Right after I talked about it and explained the difference between turtles and tortoises this lady tells her son to touch the turtle. He was about 6. I smiled and very politely said, "This desert tortoise is different than a turtle huh? Can you tell me how?" I'm trying to educate the boy and the mother snaps at me "He's a kid... it's a turtle!" Aren't you just limiting your child? I had a three year old who understood that the animal she was looking at wasn't just any ol kitty, but a lynx. She told me that, because her parents educated her.

I'm just taken back how simple facts sometimes aren't that simple and not just with animals.. with a lot of things.
Maybe people just need to take time for the basics and ask themselves.. what, is an ocelot?