Mainichi News GroupA hilarious video has emerged from a zoo in Japan, proving not all heroes wear capes – some wear lion costumes.
Staff at Tobe Zoo in Ehime went viral when someone filmed them taking part in an emergency drill to ensure they knew what to do if one of their lions escaped.
But how do you emulate a big cat escaping without actually putting your staff in danger? Well, you get a human to dress up as one, of course.
@Johnny_suputama/TwitterThe video shows staff staging the ‘lion escape’ in a bid to learn how to cope if it ever happened in real life, although something tells me it would be a little bit different to how this video would lead you to believe.
During the clip, which is enough to brighten anyone’s day, the camera cuts to a group of real lions who look bemused by the drill.
It starts with the staff putting up a net to block the cat from getting inside the site. You can then see a person stumbling around dressed up as a lion, looking like he’s fallen right out of a children’s TV programme.
Tobe Zoo in Aichi conducted a lion escape drill today.
Note the expression on the actual lions faces.
pic.twitter.com/azuJYQhLCw— Spoon & Tamago (@Johnny_suputama) June 22, 2019
Things get more intense as the ‘lion’ charges at one of the zoo keepers ‘attacking’ one of them through the net. The employee falls to the floor until their colleagues rush over to help.
During the second half of the video, a minivan arrives in into the area as a zoo worker takes aim at the person in the costume with a toy gun. The person in the costume falls to the ground in true action film slow-mo style, as if they’ve actually been struck with a bullet.
The zoo staff then prod the ‘lion’ with a long stick (very much like the cast of Friends prodding Ugly Naked Guy) to make sure it’s really dead, before the emergency workers rush out to put the animal in a body bag.
Mainichi News GroupThese staged scenarios frequently happen in Japanese zoos to make sure everyone is prepared if an incident were to happen in real life.
Another video went viral in recent months, showing someone dressed up as a zebra, attempting to escape a zoo in Tokyo.
No one can knock their creativity, that’s for sure.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.