Fake gorilla escapes from Tokyo zoo

There was some serious monkey business going on during an emergency drill at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo this week.

According to sources, it took more than 150 staff members including local police and firefighters to evacuate the park when they set a giant, adorable fake gorilla out onto the grounds of the zoo. A staff member was literally put into a monkey suit to act out a scene in which the emergency took place.

The reason? A drill in the case of an emergency such as an earthquake.

The drill is executed every two years after a Japanese macaque escaped and hid inside a neighbouring restaurant beside the park in 2010.

[ More Buzz: Teen takes selfie with dead body ]

As a precaution, the zoo recreates this drill using a different fake animal every two years. In the past, staff members have used a fake tiger and a rhinoceros. This year the gorilla was featured.

The video shows the fake gorilla wandering within the confinements of the park before being captured by the zoo staff, sedated, and loaded onto a truck.

Onlookers who had been evacuated stood by to watch the event unfold, filming the drill on their cell phones and cameras from behind the fences. Check out some of the photos here.

[ More Buzz: British woman jailed for trolling herself on Facebook ]

“In our work there may be times when we need to capture an animal but we would never be the ones being captured. So, I tried to feel what an animal might feel and realized that when they’re on the ground, they will be scared. That’s how I felt,” said Natsumi Uno, the zookeeper posing as the gorilla.

It will be interesting to see what kind of animal they will use next.

Maybe a Komodo dragon. Are visions from a scene from Godzilla dancing in your head, too?

Want the latest buzz before it goes viral?
Follow @YDailyBuzz on Twitter!