Gorilla Escape Drill in Tokyo

We saw this on the local news tonight and just had to share, in case you didn’t see it yet. The reporters thought it was hilarious and it is pretty amusing, with a keeper dressed up in a gorilla costume that looks like a stuffed toy. The drill is a bi-annual practice at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo.

Zoo director Toshimitsu Doi said these preparations are absolute necessary. “When you’re doing everyday work as part of a routine, you forget what it’s like when something out of the ordinary happens,” he said. “It’s important to take these opportunities to remember what needs to be done.” The “gorilla” in this drill got loose because of a mock earthquake.

We would imagine that if a gorilla really got loose in an earthquake, people would already be scrambling and it would be no laughing matter! A lone gorilla probably wouldn’t be the only wild animal on the loose either.

The zoo regularly switches up species when holding a drill, and has in the past used a tiger and a rhino. The last time an animal escaped from the Ueno Zoo was in January 2010, when a Japanese macaque escaped. It was recaptured within 6 hours in the stairway leading to the basement of a local restaurant.