Fake Tiger Drill at Japanese Zoo
What if is a conditional phrase well known by millions of anxiety sufferers from all over the world. In the name of safety, perhaps this has perhaps been carried a tiny bit to an absurd extreme with the fake tiger escape drill practiced in Tokyo’s Tama Zoo.
Shuhei Yamaguchi is one of the trainers at the zoo. The 26-year-old went to work on a day that might have been like any other if not for the fact that he shed his every day clothes and donned a tiger costume. He then ran around the zoo trying to look menacing while colleagues chased him with nets and guns.
Yamaguchi pretended to be a Siberian Tiger that had broken free during the turmoil of an earthquake and ran amuck for one hour, footloose and fancy teeth barred and free.
Although he looked more like the bee in Seinfeld’s hit cartoon movie, his bright yellow costume became the target of sticks, nets and almost-released triggers on tranquilizer guns brandished by more than 70 staff members.
Even if the wild animal escape is not real and there is no danger, it is felt that this rehearsal may come in handy, should this ever become a reality.
Here’s to the tiger in all of us!
Clink of glass!
By MDeeDubroff on 04-03-2011
