Strange animal in my house!

[MotherOfBengals]

Growing up in an animal loving family I’ve always taken it for granted that people know their animal species. I currently have 8 house rabbits, and 2 cats.

Yesterday I had a guy out to repair a window and he saw one of my rabbits. He looked at her and asked what kind of animal it was. He genuinely didn’t know, and was amazed when I told him it was a rabbit and said he had no idea they were so big!

Talking to friends, one said a guy she worked with called 999 as he had a hedgehog In his house and didn’t know what was.

Another said she remembered her mum somehow thinking that a hedgehog and a badger were the same size...and another time her mum asked if the pet geckos had lungs 😐

This has made me wonder what other similar stories people have?

Yes, I imagine most people would be a bit confused if you said you had a Mus musculus infestation or a Vulpes vulpes had been in your bins 😂

I also once did a shark swim at an aquarium and was for some reason thinking the sharks would be the size of large dogs? Then read the information and it was like sharks are 10-15 feet and I really struggle to conceptualise that till a colleague found a few meter ruler and made me a visual representation 😅

For some reason I always thought vultures were little birds. I figured they just arrived in flocks and nibbled away at whatever dead thing. I was in Kenya when I first saw one and I was horrified at the size! Some vultures have a wingspan of over 5ft.

I was most disappointed to discover they're not dainty little nibbly birds.😂

It's really up to parents to show their kids animals and birds - common and domestic ones at least - and teach them a few basic facts. All this ignorance and fear is really sad (like the girl running away screaming because bats were flying over the garden).

I used to work in a big office next to a country estate... a guy I worked with came in from a fag break once absolutely gobsmacked telling us there was some type of 'glorious chicken' in the carpark. It was a pheasant

I love glorious chicken for pheasant. It’s a better name.

I always think of them as glorious chickens now and smile to myself 🤣

A friend's DGD thought that bears were mythical animals. She was about 8 at the time. She found out they were real at Whipsnade Zoo.

We have a tortoise and people are invariably fascinated when they see him marching about the garden. Lots of people have never encountered one before, I don’t think.

we need pics please OP. so we can confirm it is indeed a bunny and you are not mistakenly homing E.T

My lurcher was squatting in our garden doing her business when a boy (around 5years old)walked past and shouted "wow- a kangaroo having a poo".😂

Oh god. After moving to the US I sent a friend back home a picture from my garden (or rather- backyard!) captioned “Meeting the new neighbours.”

First: “OMG A WOMBAT??? YOU’RE IN AUSTRALIA?? BUT YOU WERE MOVING TO THE STATES?”
Followed shortly by “WAIT NO that’s a capybara?? You’re in Brazil!!!”

Girl it’s a damn groundhog, calm the hell down. 😂😂

Wiki says that they escaped from the Rothschild collection in Tring and established themselves within a 16 mile radius.

Who knew!

(Apart from anyone within a 16 mile radius of Tring).

My school friend was late 30’s until we convinced her a female moth was not called a Myth, courtesy of her Dad.
Actually just googled it even more confused

We saw a porcupine in the Rockies. You’d think a porcupine is a no-brainer. It was so weird looking and walked so strangely (flat-footed heel to toe, like an old man’s shuffle) we decided it must be something else. It was only after we googled some porcupine footage that we came back to our original guess.

I once went for a walk with somebody who didn't know what a pheasant was.

Reminds me of the time I visited the Melbourne Aquarium, walking through the glass tunnel where all the fish etc swim overhead. The light was blocked out suddenly, and I looked up, startled - and saw a giant manta ray was swimming overhead. They grow up to 7m wingtip to wingtip.

But rabbits are all over the place at Easter so surely even if yours was bigger than he expected he would recognise the general shape?

A relative of mine brought up in a Northern industrial town believed that robins were mythical birds that only existed on Christmas cards. It was only when he went to uni and saw one that he twigged.
I worked with a university educated woman in her late 20s who believed that maggots appeared spontaneously from rotten meat. She was very surprised when I told her that they were actually fly larvae.

😹😹
I walk cats, which people find bizarre enough. I’ve not tried growing one in a window box yet, shall have to try that, thank you.
😸

Yes, you would have thought wouldn’t you.. 🧐

I’m not sure I’d recognise a groundhog to be honest.

This thread is hilarious…..but I have realised that I don’t actually know what a buffalo wing is 😳

My Italian DH was very put out when I corrected him that multiple sheep are not sheeps, cue lots of muttering about "your stupid language"!

I grew up with tortoises as a child, back in the day you would pick one out of a box at the pet shop.
Nowadays they are more specialist, and not so common, I think a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to see them, so don’t know what they are.