gizmodo.com: It was only a drill. Staff at the Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo recently chased an unlucky coworker dressed in a droopy chimpanzee suit during an escaped animal drill. Eventually, the zookeepers shot at the costumed human with a tranquilizer gun, loaded the poor guy into a truck, and hopefully, paid for all the beers at happy hour.
11 comments:
uhhh... What? This is a little odd? a lot odd? Does it really help the zoo to practice what to do if an animal escapes? I can sort of understand that a human could potentially think in the mind of a monkey about how to escape their enclosure, however why do they go as far as zebra and leopard costumes? This sounds like something that was started on a dare, and for some reason caught on, and is now just a tradition - that I don't understand. The time and money that goes into this drill could be better put into safety checks on the animals enclosures and many other things. I do think that having a drill to practice how to capture and escaped animal is a good idea, and should be done on a scheduled basis. But is the dressing up as an animal really necessary? I feel bad for the worker that had the job that day. It would totally take out the seriousness of the situation as well, I'm sure it I was on the team that was to be capturing the human/animal that I would find it funny and not be in the mind set that is needed when actually trying to safely capture an animal.
This article was mentioned to me on a lighting call and I took it as a joke. However it looks like the furries will rise again. I understand the concept of the drill and it how it's a good simulation but like why does it have to be so weird. If the tranquilizer dart was real it would cause whoever was in the suit to try as hard as an escaped animal might to get away, and a human could only imitate an animal's intelligence, not it’s speed and power, so the drill is quite inefficient. It is also probably a big event that draws hordes of customers and I’d assume a low key hazing ritual for new employees. However in light of our lord and savior Harambe passing away recently the shooting of an out of control animal seems to disrespect his death and make a mockery of wild animals.
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Honestly, this makes a lot of sense. If you potentially need to catch an escaped animal, you need to practice doing it. The only way to practice is if you have a fake escaped animal. I suppose you could practice catching a dog or something, but the advantage of a person in a costume is that you don’t actually have to tranquilize them, they know when to pretend to have been tranquilized, and I assume that is what they do. And, if you are going to practice, why not go with some entertaining costumes. Obviously this drill won’t be perfectly realistic because it is a human behaving how they imagine an animal would, and catching the fake-chimp is likely easier than catching a real one, but at least this drill gets everyone to practice going through the motions. This article is framing this as some absurd tradition, but it is just a drill for a possible event that looks kind of strange at a glance. And even though I do understand how it seems weird, I don’t think it even looks that strange. It is a person in a chimp costume playing a chimp for the sake of practicing catching a chimp. Seems pretty logical.
Wow! What an amazing example of the importance of the rehearsal process! Every person within this drill remained calm the way they should in the case of a real Gorilla escape. I'm really hoping that the tranquilizer was full, just to be sure that all the procedures work properly. I believe this is something the theatrical world can take notes on. If you watch the care and precision the participants showed as they executed this mission, you can see how much their intense focus helped with their success. You can see this very clearly in the moment one of the workers pokes and the unconscious body of the "gorilla", before the entire team moves in to pick up the lifeless body. Even the guy playing the gorilla is committed; he doesn't move! That could just be because of the fact that he was unconscious but either way, bravo to his performance. What I see here in this video is a prime example of teamwork, dedication, and preventive measures that we should all appreciate and use as a model for our own processes.
My first question is why the hell is this on Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama's PTM blog. How the hell does this end up here? I'm not complaining--it's so absurd and I love it, but it's just so silly. That said, I suppose this kinda relates to theatre or entertainment maybe?
That aside, while it is absurd, it does seem like an important procedure for a zoo to practice, so that if this actually occurs, it is handled properly. While the costume is a bit absurd, and I hope that that tranquilizer gun was not loaded, it does seem like a good procedure that I would hope most zoos practice in order to keep their zoos safe. And in a way, it does relate to entertainment, because it is important to practice these procedures in order to keep patrons and production team safe, but maybe without the chimp suit.
Oh my god I can't get over that picture that the article linked to of the employee in a Tigger costume being aimed at by tranquilizer guns. This idea is hilarious and I love it. The fact that this zoo has consistently been doing this for years with equally as ridiculous costumes must mean that it's not as cruel as the author of this article thinks it is. As funny as this is, I'm not sure how practical this training would be in the event of an actual escape. A real tiger is going to run much faster and jump much higher than a employee that was convinced to run around in a Tigger suit. Maybe they should make sure they put emphasis on other ways to train employees that are little more grounded in reality. However, this does seem like a great way to attract tourists so I definitely don't think that Tama Zoo should stop this tradition.
0_0….HAHA! This is one of the most ridiculous articles I’ve ever read! I really wonder what went through their heads when they thought of this tradition at the zoo. It is so bizarre and comical that it is actually a thing of brilliance! Though not exactly effectively executed, this strange tradition does show a constant attempt of trying to prevent a crisis. I believe, in the case of safety, the ‘thought’ counts (at least more than no thought at all). And I tried to understand why this would appear on the PTM blog, like Alex and I’m sure anyone else who read the article and watch the video. For a blog that is supposed to contain articles mostly pertaining to theatre or design and production, this is an odd on to be picked out. But here is my theory: behind the mask of absurdity, this article is about safety and what people do in order to protect it. In theatre, there are a lot of dangerous and life threatening situational possibilities, and safety is really important. So even if it is a seemingly stupid idea, as long as it is a means of protecting others, then no idea is too weird: even if it means you have to get into a chimp suit.
I opened this article a little confused about what it had to do with theatre, or its purpose on the blog and I was honestly just curious. Going through the article, I was not sure whether or not I should laugh or be concerned about this practice. I understand that the zoo has had experience with chimps breaking out often, so taking safety precautions would be expected. What I don't understand is why an employee is dressed up and shot with a tranquilizer gun. This seems like it goes against any humane practice of respecting workers rights, which brings me to my next point. The blog post itself didn't seem to know what was going on in the situation and wasn't helpfully reporting anything. I feel that what was said was rather unprofessional to be honest. The language choice and layout bothered me. Coupled with the strange video footage, and not really knowing if this is worker abuse, or a voluntary practice with compensation, this article left me feeling a little strange.
Wow well alright. I kind of understand where they are coming from, but I hope they are aware that by no means are human beings capable of the same things that animals are. Sure, dressing them up in animals costumes makes it slightly more convincing, but humans can not swing from power lines with the same natural grace and ease as a genuine monkey. I feel like what they are more practicing for is the ability to stop a wayward human being that has dressed up in an animal suit in an effort to break into the animal environments. I am very glad this is in the blog this week, as this is very clearly something that we have concerns about every day in theatre. It is kind of similar to how we would deal with an audience member walking onstage during a performance. Would we chase them down? Possibly. Would we shoot them with tranquilizer guns? Hopefully not.
I was a little concerned when opening up this article as i was worried that we were going to get a bit memey with the whole Harambe thing, but was taken by surprise when it was something else entirely. While i can understand the value of having a drill like this, im not sure how much it will accomplish in the long run. because like others have said, this can not match the actual catastrophe of having to re-capture an escaped chimp. however overall, i wonder why this article would show up on a theater in the real world blog. all i can think is because it shows caution and practice in case of emergency, and that kind of redundancy is something to be valued in theater. that or it could be a job opportunity for one of the budding actors here: go take a semester abroad and engage in some WILD live theater.
You know, I think these crazy zoo employees may be onto something. You never know when an emergency might crop up that you need to be prepared for. Actually, I think we maybe need to start doing drills like this around Purnell. Every year, we draw straws, and someone has to dress up as an escaped Purnelephant. They have to act really happy and enthusiastic, and actually make plans for the weekend. Their goal is to try and escape the building and enjoy the sunlight, and the outside world, and socialization outside of this godforsaken department. Then, the rest of us don our riot gear, and we chase after them with unfinished assignments and passive aggressive comments about ‘must be nice to have so little to do’. And if we play our cards right we can shame them back into the Purnell, where they stay trapped forever. That way, if a situation like that ever comes up in real life, we as a community can be ready.
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