This is the dramatic moment armed police stepped in to neutralise a tiger who had escaped from his enclosure at a packed Chinese zoo.
Thankfully for the visitors to Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan Province, China, however, the tiger in question was a person in a fluffy costume who was helping bosses plan for a real big cat escape.
The willing human tiger took part in a well-executed drill at the popular zoo so staff knew what to do should a dangerous tiger escape from its enclosure. Bemused visitors looked on as the willing ‘tiger’ prowled through the bushes and leapt across concrete walkways. Staff seemed keen to assure visitors that if one of their big cats did escape from the zoo, they would deal with it in robust fashion. Another bizarre scene during the rehearsal saw the tiger skulking across a pathway on two legs, as crowds and staff wielding brooms looked on from a safe distance. As the drill came to and end, several employees surrounded the tiger-costumed person with large sticks to corner it into submission. A number of officers armed with rifles also pounced on the escaped ‘animal’ and pointed their weapons in its direction during the drill.
At the end of the exercise the costume wearing man was even carried away on a stretcher – no doubt to the confusion of the real big cat watching on from behind its glass enclosure.
Whether the park’s methods would be as effective against a real live big cat as opposed to a man in a costume is questionable.
