A person disguised as a Siberian tiger ran wild through Tokyo's Tama Zoo yesterday in an exercise to prepare zookeepers for dangerous situations involving escaped animals.
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Yesterday's dramatic simulation involved a Siberian tiger that escaped its pen following an earthquake. The mock animal wandered freely through the park, attacking zoo workers and visitors before it was surrounded with nets, shot with a tranquilizer dart, and transported back to its cage.
Theatrical exercises involving people in animal costumes are conducted each year in Tokyo at either Tama Zoo or Ueno Zoo. In addition to providing hands-on experience with capturing escaped animals, the drills force zookeepers to administer first aid, usher visitors to safety, and coordinate with local emergency services. Here are a few videos of past exercises.
DrChewbacca
I love the rhinoceros one. Especially when this guy tries to do something with a bucket around 0:45.
[]Made in DNA
I wonder if they give instructions to zookeepers on how not to shit their pants when the real thing happens.
[]solaceinrage
It was funny and cute, but the tiger one couldn't have done much for training other than to familiarize staff with where the equipment is and how to place it. I got to work with them a bit as a carnival worker between my sophomore and junior years at college. They can run over thirty miles an hour and usually weigh upwards of 550 lbs, and there is very little you can do with that type of mesh if one hits you. If they are familiar with you and recognize you as being friendly, or someone who regularly feeds and tends them its one thing, but a group of strangers backing one into a slowly retracting space will put one into a panic and ready to kill to escape.
[]l closely
Godzilla is destroying the city!!
OK. . .seriously, that's awesome. I get the need for that kind of drill, and what better way to do it than with cutesy-wutsey animal costumes during actual operating hours?
[]takosuke
i had seen some of this stuff before...but this somehow sums up everything i found frightening and evil about japan to me. It just gives me the chills. Reminds me of that kenzaburo oe short story too, from the book teach us to outgrow our madness. it makes me have second thoughts about ever returning in spite of the good friends who are there now that i miss...
[]ken
Your "friends" in Japan will be perfectly fine without you. Stay home with mommy.
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