Escaped tiger, too cute?
Wednesday, March 16th, 2005The following is a translation of an article appearing on The Asashi Shimbun website.
An earthquake with an intensity of 7 out of 7 on the Japanese seismic scale has just occurred, and a tiger has escaped from its cage.—Under this hypothetical scenario the Tennouji Zoo in Osaka practiced capturing escaped animals.
The real 1975 incident of a leopard escape became the reason for starting this practice, and recently it is being done once every two years. About 90 staff members split up and pursued a keeper who played the part of the costumed tiger.
Two years ago the practice was conducted with a bear suit, however, it was too realistic and some children even cried, so it was changed to an event-use tiger costume. Kindergarteners let out a cheer, and one staff member remarked, “There was power in the movement, but it might be too cute.â€