TOKYO, Feb. 3 (UPI) — A Tokyo zoo dressed an employee in a cartoonish zebra costume to allow zookeepers to practice recapturing a panicked animal.
The Ueno Zoo held an escape drill Tuesday that involved a fictional earthquake freeing a zebra — actually 27-year-old Yumi Tamura in a mascot-style zebra costume — from its enclosure.
The scenario included an employee being faux-injured while another suffered a simulated heart attack.
Video of the drill shows the fake zebra being surrounded by zookeepers before being subdued with a simulated tranquilizer gun and loaded onto a pickup truck.
Similar escape drills are common at Japanese zoos, with the Tama Zoological Park holding a simulated escape last year with an employee dressed in a leopard costume.
