diff --git a/plugins/inventory/ec2.ini b/plugins/inventory/ec2.ini
index 170505fe331..01a4982d624 100644
--- a/plugins/inventory/ec2.ini
+++ b/plugins/inventory/ec2.ini
@@ -36,11 +36,11 @@ vpc_destination_variable = ip_address
 
 # To tag instances on EC2 with the resource records that point to them from
 # Route53, uncomment and set 'route53' to True.
-#
-# Optionally, you can specify the list of zones to exclude looking up in
-# 'route53_excluded_zones' as a comma-seperated list.
 route53 = False
-route53_excluded_zones =
+
+# Additionally, you can specify the list of zones to exclude looking up in
+# 'route53_excluded_zones' as a comma-seperated list.
+# route53_excluded_zones = samplezone1.com, samplezone2.com
 
 # API calls to EC2 are slow. For this reason, we cache the results of an API
 # call. Set this to the path you want cache files to be written to. Two files
diff --git a/plugins/inventory/ec2.py b/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
index 41b87294066..c533a77b385 100755
--- a/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
+++ b/plugins/inventory/ec2.py
@@ -207,7 +207,10 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
 
         # Route53
         self.route53_enabled = config.getboolean('ec2', 'route53')
-        self.route53_excluded_zones = config.get('ec2', 'route53_excluded_zones', '').split(',')
+        self.route53_excluded_zones = []
+        if config.has_option('ec2', 'route53_excluded_zones'):
+            self.route53_excluded_zones.extend(
+                config.get('ec2', 'route53_excluded_zones', '').split(','))
 
         # Cache related
         cache_path = config.get('ec2', 'cache_path')
@@ -422,9 +425,8 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         r53_conn = route53.Route53Connection()
         all_zones = r53_conn.get_zones()
 
-        is_valid_zone = lambda zone: not zone.name in self.route53_excluded_zones
-
-        route53_zones = filter(is_valid_zone, all_zones)
+        route53_zones = [ zone for zone in all_zones if zone.name[:-1] 
+                          not in self.route53_excluded_zones ]
 
         self.route53_records = {}