Saturday 26 October 2024

Nice Try, Rosie, But Surely The Essence Of Good PR Is....

...not making your clients look unprofessional?
It's home to over 200 animals, ranging from giraffes to cheetahs. But despite this extensive collection, keepers at Bristol Zoo Project have been left baffled by one mysterious creature. The four-legged animal was caught on a night vision camera in the Bear Wood habitat.

Baffled? I could have told you what it was. Every gamekeeper and deerstalker and farmer in the country could have told you what it was. But Rosie struggles on gamely: 

...the confused keepers say it's 'like nothing they have spotted before.'
'The sighting of this mythical-like creature is a mystery to us here at Bristol Zoo Project,' said Rosie Sims, Public Engagement Manager at Bristol Zoo Project.
'Scotland has the Loch Ness monster and Cornwall has the Beast of Bodmin Moor. 'Have we discovered a similar mythical here in Bristol perhaps?'

No, and your keepers should hand in their licences to work at a zoo if they really can't identify a muntjac. 

Of course, that's not what happened, this is a story designed to publicise the zoo by being picked up by a supine MSM who'll print any old press release without stopping to think how likely it is... 

To get to the bottom of it, MailOnline turned to the AI bot, ChatGPT. We uploaded a photo of the creature and asked ChatGPT: 'What animal is this?'
Within seconds, the AI bot responded: 'The animal in the image appears to be a muntjac, also known as a barking deer.'

Imagine being thrashed at animal recognition by 'Mail' journalists...!  

2 comments:

Andy5759 said...

The woodland opposite our house when I grew up was a haven for munties in spring. When creeping around playing hide and seek or cowboys and indians we'd often surprise a deer snacking on green shoots. Majestic creatures, lots of meat on those hindquarters.

JuliaM said...

"Majestic creatures, lots of meat on those hindquarters."

I've never tried this species - my favourite so far is roe deer. Wonder if these are as good?