The people who run zoos have an immense responsibility to not only keep the animals inside the enclosures safe, but to also keep everyone outside of the zoo safe, as well.
They can’t let themselves be blindsided by unforeseen circumstances and suddenly put the animals and possibly even humans at risk of serious injury. There must be at least some sort of plan in place in order to be moderately, if not fully, prepared for anything.
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So naturally, zoos will ensure their staff are as well trained and well equipped to handle any event or incident that might disrupt the zoo’s natural day-to-day life.
Some zoos train employees by running drills to prepare them for any and all possible scenarios requiring immediate action.
But there’s only so much that a drill can really teach someone, especially if it involves animals. Most creatures are very unpredictable, and there’s really no telling how one might act if it feels it’s suddenly in danger.
Still, the drills are helpful to at least give employees a good idea of what the suggested course of action is, even if all the variables aren’t exactly true to life.
One zoo in Japan took steps to prepare its employees in the case of a sudden, unexpected earthquake.
The country is particularly susceptible to earthquakes. In fact, Japan is the most seismically active country in the world , often experiencing several earthquakes daily, though not all of them physically detectable.
Keeping in mind the serious risk of earthquakes in the country, the Tobe Zoo in Ehime took action.
According to Indy100 , on Saturday the zoo gathered its employees for their annual, elaborate drill to prepare them in case an earthquake were to hit, potentially letting the zoo’s most predatory animals, the lions, loose.
But they couldn’t very well train the employees by literally letting the lions roam free out of their enclosure.
That would just be irresponsible. So instead, the zoo had a man dress up in a furry lion suit and run around the zoo property while employees chased it with air guns and gigantic nets in an attempt to catch the “escaped lion.”
And yes, it was just as ridiculous as it sounds.
Thankfully, because the internet is a thing, we can actually see a video of the whole drill taking place.
Local news agency Mainichi News Group shared the video on Twitter and it’s quickly gone viral, but not because people are so impressed with the zoo staffers’ preparedness. Instead, everyone seems to be just totally amused with out utterly and unintentionally hilarious this drill turned out to be.
Watch the full video below.
You’ve got to hand it to that “lion” because he definitely stayed in character the entire time.
As blue-suited zoo staffers chased him with their huge nets and air horns, he kept on galloping like the professional he is, never once forgetting that he’s supposed to be a lion.
And the Oscar goes to… this guy.
People online definitely had some comments and some of them are even funnier than the actual video.
The best ones are the ones that point out the actual real life lions who you can see at several points in the video, simply sitting and watching the buffoonery right before their eyes.
“‘My man would put up a fight before getting caught,'” one used commented, imagining the inner commentary between the cats. “This is insulting!”
To be fair, those lions definitely looked like they didn’t appreciate being mocked like that.
But wouldn’t you be a little insulted if you were just lounging on your rock, minding your own business, and suddenly someone came running out in front of you, dressed in a truly halfhearted attempt to look just like you, and then proceeded to parade around making fun of your behavior and mannerisms?
Yeah, I think it’s safe to say these guys weren’t sitting back and enjoying the show. They were probably plotting their revenge. Or maybe just enjoying the show, which one user aplty dubbed “dinner theater.”
One person pointed out the biggest problem with this entire drill video that staff probably didn’t consider.
You wouldn’t let prisoners watch while you run drills on how to prevent them from escaping. That just gives away everything. Clearly staffers weren’t considering the innate transparency of doing the drill directly in front of the lions .
Others shared their own zoo experiences with ridiculous animal-escape drill exercises.
One person wrote that their own zoo ran the same drills, although opted not to include the furry lion suit so sometimes staffers forgot just which human (er, lion ) they were supposed to be trying to catch.
But all joking aside, this is still a very serious drill that the zoo must run in order to keep everyone involved safe.
That means the lions themselves as well as zoo staff and anyone who would possible find themselves face-to-face with a giant escaped cat. Although the events of the drill are absolutely ridiculous and still make me snort to think about, the ends definitely justify the means. Ridiculous or not, this is all about safety, people.
But maybe next time they should skip the lion suit. Just saying.
h/t: Indy 100
