Close Encounters of the Crowded Kind

If there is one drawback to the small animal exhibits, I find it to be the crowds.  On a quiet day (which is when I normally aim to visit a zoo or aquarium) there's no issue.  On a busy day, looking at small exhibits is impossible.  When you're watching a shark swimming by in a huge ocean tank, or an elephant strolling across its yard, it's easy to see the animal from a distance.  In the case of the elephant, it'll almost certainly be at a distance, because you're probably watching the animal from an overlook, or across a moat.  With smaller animals in glass-fronted habitats, the visitors are usually able to get right up to the display.  This can lead to an annoying situation where lots of people are crowded at the glass in a mob, making it impossible to break through and see.

Sometimes, I admit that the zoo snob in me bristles at these times to a degree that's kind of ridiculous.  This is especially true if it's something rare, unusual, and (almost always) obscure that I really want to see but can't because of the crowds.  I'll find myself muttering to myself about having my view blocked by people who, I sense, won't really appreciate the animal anyway, and probably won't even remember it ten seconds after they move on.

This is another situation in which providing larger habitats for small animals can help, but it won't be a full problem solve, as it's still easy for a few people to block off visual access to a small animal.  So there might not be a solution here.  The plus side, I find, is that when you do finally push your way through and see the animal up close (or, better yet, if you've come on a quiet day without crowds), the encounter is that much more intimate and personal than it is from watching a big animals several yards away.