Please explain ....

[The_Ghan]

Well, the Japanese are renowned for their culture, inventiveness, and innovation.  They have great companies like Toshiba, Hitachi, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ... I could go on ... They've developed remarkable products like their railways, home electronics, micro electronics, earthquake monitoring, and the like.  Their orderly social structure, although unusual to many outsiders, is possibly one of the most remarkable in the world, promoting team spirit,

 

So, why, why, why, does a nation so amazing go and do something like this?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[stevenh]

Heh... it's a drill!

I suppose they could use a real rhino.

 

But that'd be like a fire drill with a real fire.

[bikkuri bahn]

I don't see anything wrong with it.  I don't think you can coax a rhino back to its enclosure by negotiating with it.  Btw, I don't like zoos, regardless of country of location.

[cteno4]

Having drills like this is good, as folks in situations like this w/o one usually run around like heads w/ their chickens cut off. If you have ever been a part of an emergency situation you will know most folks either panic or freeze. To get something like a rhino under control would take a lot of coordination and team work and screw ups would be fatal. For the reasons you stated about Japan doing actually speak to them taking this this far. I actually see the wisdom in the fake rhino as if you have ever worked around larger animals you realize you have to learn to always be aware of their size, mass and reach. I'm guessing a lot of the staff they were training to help out in a situation like this might not always be really close to large animals all the time or work together.

 

Im thinking of this as a great scene to model at some point, complete with a tv new crew and van there (hey have to use up all those bandai news vans!)

 

Jeff

[westfalen]

I agree, it make a lot of sense and is the sort of thing I'd expect the orderly Japanese to do. I bet there's even a strict chain of promotion as to which zoo employees get into the rhino costume and which one is the rear end.

 

I hope the real rhino has been put through a training course so it knows what to do when the bunch of guys start hitting it with sticks, or did they get some volunteers to try it with a real one to see if it worked.

[The_Ghan]

Having spent a month trecking through southern Africa I'm pretty sure those guys holding up the netting are as good as a gay rooster in the chookyard.  A handful of blokes holding a net won't be very effective in corralling an ill tempered rhino ... or even a frendly, docile one.  The right practice would be to stay well out of the way, preferably up a tree.  I think these guys have been watching too much Crocodile Dundee.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Gqjf6E_Cc

 

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

Sure you ran into a lot of captive rhinos in your treks thru the outback. I'm sure the practice is based on how captive rhinos react, I don't think they are just making this all up. Many emergency training exercises look silly, but they are meant to just practice the basics slowly and methodically.

 

Jeff