Lions are not impressed with Japan zoo's mock lion escape drill, but we are
To prepare for the worst, the Tobe Zoo in Japan put a staff member in a lion suit.
In the event of an earthquake or some other incident that leads to lions escaping their enclosure, the zoo is prepared to handle the situation, according to a translated article from the local news agency Mainichi News Group. Using nets and an air gun (it'd be a tranquilizer gun in a real escape), the zoo held a mock lion escape Saturday with a person in a lion costume running around trying to get out. It caused quite the scene.
Meanwhile, the real lions at the zoo were mildly concerned -- if at all -- with the silly humans re-enacting their potential great escape.
The Spoon & Tamago Twitter account posted the local new's agency's video of the drill, much to the internet's amusement.
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The Tobe Zoo recently added a male lion to its den, so maybe his arrival is what prompted the lion suit drill.
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The video seems to be resonating with viewers since we are all those lions, the actual big cats, blithely glancing at all the fuss.
Topics Animals
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
