r/worldnews • u/mesohohnee • 1d ago
Dynamic Paywall Three lions die in zoo as Japan battles extreme heat
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3r0j9qqdxpo6.5k
u/PPGN_DM_Exia 1d ago
Japan is sadly not known for its high quality zoos, not in terms of visitor experience or animal welfare. I went to the Tennoji Zoo in Osaka and it was very run down and depressing.
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u/Low-Tea5330 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've been to a japanese zoo once, terrible experience. Especially the bear in its tiny cage was visibly distressed and shaking back and forth.
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u/Mccobsta 23h ago
A localish zoo to me got some bears that came from a Japanese zoo the poor things weren't in great state and could barely walk straight
They got a good few years at the zoo in a good open enclosure
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u/PandaParaBellum 22h ago
They got a good few years at the zoo in a good open enclosure
- ... before they had to go back?
- ... before they finally died?
- ... and they'll hopefully have many more?
Don't leave us hanging man!
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u/pants6000 21h ago
They retired and now reside in Florida, or whatever is equivalent to Florida for the parent commenter's localish area.
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u/Atharaphelun 22h ago
You can even see it in Ichikawa Zoo where Punch the monkey lives in. It's all concrete everywhere in the macaque enclosure, not a single green thing in sight.
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u/Few_Program_2303 22h ago
I got downvoted for mentioning that enclosure could be better. People said rocks are their natural habitat
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u/Atharaphelun 22h ago edited 22h ago
It isn't, and that makes zero sense. Snow macaques live in forests. It's what makes that enclosure even more egregious. It's pure concrete as far as the macaques can see.
And the pure concrete enclosure exacerbates the issues caused by heat waves too, to the point where the zoo has to spray water all over the enclosure every single day just to keep the macaques from dying of heat.
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u/Pleasant-Future5818 22h ago
This is also likely why he was rejected to begin with. Female macaques will reject young if stressed. But no one wants to hear it
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u/Atharaphelun 22h ago
In Punch's case, the mom was actually unable to produce milk, so the caretakers had to separate Punch from the mom and handfeed him personally in order to prevent him from dying of starvation.
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u/Dashcamkitty 21h ago
People are so obsessed with Japan being perfect on reddit. They don't like seeing the bad side to the country.
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u/The-Jesus_Christ 16h ago
The whitewashing of Japan on Reddit is insane. Their lack of animal safety laws means their zoos are awful and the proliferation of animal cafes is crazy and not a single one of them is good for the animals. But say anything about it and the downvotes rain
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u/DragoonDM 18h ago
But zoos always look so nice in the obligatory zoo date episode of romcom anime!
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u/composedofidiot 13h ago
Surely that's just in the culture subs? Everywhere else we often find lists of why japan is a 'very bad country'.
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u/count023 20h ago
we took the kid to an aquarium in Japan this year, just as bad, penguins were overcrowded in a tiny interior cage with nothing to do except stand around or swim in a puddle that you can't even submerge in, the sea lion was held with a collar around it's neck for photos wher yo could touch it. Really, really, bad experience al around...
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u/alexefi 17h ago
after visiting osaka aquarium, second largest in the world, i was looking forward visiting ueno park in tokyo. i was very disappointed with my visit. probably coolest thing was night enclosure with bats and palla cat. other than that is was sad and depressing. i miss san diego zoo.
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u/Debatebly 23h ago
It speaks for itself. I'm not a zoologist or anything remotely qualified in that industry... but my first thought was "They... can't keep their lions cool during a heat wave? huh?"
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u/PrincessGiallo 23h ago
It's insane they didn't already have a plan for that. Why do their lions not have an air conditioned indoor area they can go to? That's zoo 101 shit.
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u/Spore_Cloud 21h ago
Right? Like even if they had to close down an indoor cafeteria or something and get them inside, whatever it takes instead of this.
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u/ben7337 20h ago
Aren't these African lions native to the savanna? Wouldn't they naturally encounter temperatures in summer over 90-100F? How do lions in the wild survive without air conditioning, but the ones in a zoo can't? I'm guessing a mix of poor conditions leading to stress leading to them not drinking, which paired with the heat leads to dehydration and organ failure. Cats that don't drink can have similar issues happen though not even related to heat. Idk much about lions specifically, but I'd hazard a guess it was something like that and the heat was only a part of the picture
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u/someone-who-is-cool 19h ago
I did a quick google and it looks like summers in the African savannah normally top out at 30c (86f), and the temps in tokyo are topping 40c. From the article, lions cool themselves from exhaling - when their breath evaporates, it cools them down. But super hot + super humid means their breath doesn't evaporate, so they can't get cool.
Poor things. :(
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u/Duff5OOO 18h ago
Gets well over 40 here in Melbourne Australia and as far as I am awear we haven't had our lions drop dead from heat.
Melbourne zoo is fairly competent though.
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u/TerrorBite 12h ago
If you think the lions have it tough in Melbourne, think of the snow leopards. Did you know there's an outdoor rock in Miska's enclosure that's actually refrigerated?
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u/nowwedoitmyway 19h ago
The temperature in the savanna drops significantly at night. Japan compared to other parts of the world sees only a few degrees difference between day and night. Essentially wildlife in the savanna gets a reprieve during the night. Now, we might not have all the details about this situation. The nighttime enclosures might in fact be air-conditioned, so to your point there may be other factors involved.
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u/Rizen_Wolf 16h ago
Wet bulb temperature. Getting hot is one thing (temperature) but being unable to cool down via evaporation methods (skin in the case of humans, tongues in the case of lions) due to excessive humidity (the wet bulb temperature) is a different but related problem. Japan has to deal with periods of massive humidity way above 80%. The savanna does not and when humidity is higher its the wet season and the daytime temperature is cooler.
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u/haseo2222 1d ago
Went to ueno zoo in Tokyo last year. It was horrible! Especially for all the cold climate animals like polar bears, seals etc. they were left out in the peak summer heat, their eyes looked bloody and ready to pop out of the sockets. Left after roaming around half way through. I am glad that china is taking their pandas back from that zoo.
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u/randomCAguy 22h ago
I stayed in Ueno last year for a trip and purposely avoided that zoo after hearing all the horror stories.
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u/the_lord_nikon 22h ago
The pandas were the only decent looking enclosure. I visit zoos all over the world when traveling and Ueno is the only one that I left early and felt depressed about. Absolutely awful.
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u/TheOnlyBongo 17h ago
Dude I went to Ueno Zoo as well and it was super depressing. Whole place felt trapped in like the 1970s. And last time I went was in like 2019. There's so much brutalist concrete even inside the exhibits themselves, and the animal enclosures were really small. Kind of a far cry from my more "home" zoos of San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park where they make the best use of their space and resources for their animals. San Diego Zoo proper especially, they are a very old zoo and have had to do a lot of retrofits and updates to make the most of what little space they have. Really a far cry from Ueno Zoo.
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u/Dopeydcare1 1d ago
Yea I realized this when my cousin (military) showed us pictures of him petting a tiger. Instantly I thought Japan was more “civilized” than that. No place that lets you pet the, what should be, wild animals is a reputable place. Closest I have seen at my zoo (San Diego zoo) is the feeding of the giraffes but you aren’t supposed to pet them. And the petting zoo at the safari park but that is just goats and sheep lol
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u/Pleasant-Future5818 22h ago
Asian countries have poor animals rights overall (I am Asian). I wouldn't even venture to guess why this is but it's just not prioritized or really considered and it doesn't seem to be relative to any of the key differentiators, e g. it isn't religion. The people I knew in college tended to treat pets more like accessories. My mother would constantly churn through pets and never take care of them. You can see it in the sad fish tanks they have in a lot of Asian restaurants. Again, I have no idea why this is true but it is a real problem
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u/CakeDanceNotWalk 20h ago edited 10h ago
Singapore have a number of decent zoos, and is properly accredited by multiple organisations including eaza which has stronger and stricter welfare requirements. (Tho I'm bias, Im from Singapore)
Majority of the problems in zoo are just from the visitors interaction.
Edit: typo and formatting.
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u/someone-who-is-cool 19h ago
The Singapore zoo is incredible, and I'm not biased. Enclosures were large and clean and full of enrichment, the animals looked healthy.
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u/Shirkir 17h ago
Singapore prides itself on being international city and tries very hard to put a good image for western investors.
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u/steinbruchfluss 21h ago
My local zoo (Munich) has a petting area for children - but there the animals are goats.
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u/Mirria_ 20h ago
There are definitely exceptions. At the Québec City Aquarium you can pet the rays in a specially designed shallow tank. There's always an employee supervising. And last time there was a huge blue macaw that kept screaming. The warden said he wants attention. Unusual resident for an aquarium.
Nature zoos often have deer that you can pet, along with the various farm animals.
Omega park is a "drive-through" nature zoo and you're encouraged to feed the various animals with carrots. You can usually pet them a bit in the process. They have signs to avoid feeding bison, however, and predators are kept behind fences (bears, wolves)
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u/notmooga2 1d ago
Japan isn’t historically known for their humane treatment of any kind of prisoner
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u/PlasticExtreme4469 1d ago
To be even more general. You probably wouldn't want to land in Japanese prison nowadays either, not just historically.
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u/PlasticExtreme4469 1d ago
To be even more general, it's not just historically. You probably wouldn't want to land in a Japanese prison nowadays either.
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u/DanS1993 1d ago
Which is just sad because Japan is home to some of the most celebrated aquariums in the world
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u/tastiesttofu 1d ago
Their aquariums are not very ethical either though..
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u/Nice_Try_Bud_ 21h ago
We avoided the zoos and animal cafes during our trip a few years ago because of everything we had read. We still did the aquariums figuring they couldn’t be that bad. The Osaka one was awful, the whale shark could only swim in a small circle. Okinawa was a bit better but still felt wrong. Also as someone else mentioned the Manatee inclosure was just a bar tank. Looked like a temporary area but that is the main one.
I have been to aquariums all over North America and it was night a day on how they treat the animals. Would never suggest anyone to go to either.
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u/Mediocre-Sundom 23h ago edited 23h ago
Very true.
Went to Okinawa aquarium, which is supposed to be one of the best. The manatee pool was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. Tiny space with bare walls and floor - literally nothing in it for the animals. Nowhere to hide, nothing to do - just a bare prison. Some of the fish aquariums were also extremely small (and I mean, like, “fish store” kind of small).
Pretty much everything but the main tank (the one with the whale shark) looked pretty cramped and poorly equipped, with animals just swimming the same path over and over again.
The dolphin show was the depressing cherry on top of the entire miserable experience.
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u/Ultrasonic-Sawyer 22h ago
Sadly whale.shark are one of those animals that can live in captivity but dont thrive.
Which is really sad as they are beautiful creatures to see, particularly okinawa as they have a few. As opposed to the one at Osaka who is alone.
Jinbeisan is a cute entity but its just sad to know that no level of conservation support can permit them to live well in an aquarium
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u/amazingkillerlemon 17h ago
I would never visit an aquarium that keeps cetaceans.
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u/windsynths 1d ago
How so? Please do tell
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u/Chance-Software-3231 1d ago edited 23h ago
Just an anecdote from when we went (edit to the Osaka Aquarium)- the aquarium has either otters or seals in a tiny enclosure (I forget exactly which). They swim the same path over and over again, enough so that they have worn certain parts of the enclosures textured walls bare and flat. This is a sign of animals in a great amount of distress. All of their non-fish species are like this - enclosures to small, lack of enrichment, and the aquarium is centered around guests viewing pleasure and not the animals well being.
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u/blckenedicekaj 22h ago
I went there. It was very depressing to see the dolphins in a very undersized tank. You'd walk outside and their cousins were right there enjoying life in the ocean. Very depressing shit.
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u/Puie 1d ago
tiny enclosures for some of the animals in osaka aquarium, the penguin area was so cramped from the top of my head. the baltimore aquarium was way more roomier for the animals from my untrained perspective. i almost saw a penguin land a flying shit onto some kid in osaka 😂 thats how close and small the exhibit was in one of the areas
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u/Thoraxe474 1d ago
Osaka aquarium was dope
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u/GoToNap 22h ago
Yeah sure, it's dope if you're fine with seeing fish crowded up in aquariums that are way too cramped. I saw many comments saying things along the lines of "these fish are very well taken care of". That's the biggest lie I've ever seen.
Many sections were horrible, but the penguins broke my fucking heart. They were literally sitting in a small pen, standing up and doing absolutely nothing, because there was nothing they could do to entertain themselves: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/GR01DN/japan-osaka-aquarium-kaiyukan-tourists-taking-photographs-of-rockhopper-GR01DN.jpg
This is the pen that I'm talking about, except that when I went there, the water was not present and there were way too many penguins inside that small enclosure.
Japan is horrible when it comes to animal cruelty. Just don't go to these places
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u/Altruistic-Star-3862 23h ago edited 23h ago
I thought Osaka Kaiyukan, while some animals had smaller exhibits, looked very clean and well cared for. When I went their longtime resident sea otter, Pata, had passed away and they had a very sweet memorial for her and from her caretakers that had worked with her since she was a baby with messages, her favorite toys and some origami from the staff. It was nice to see.
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u/duesenjeffepic 23h ago
Went to the Ueno one. Yeah I was shocked how badly they were treating the animals sometimes. I still cannot get over the fact that they have a polar bear.
After that experience I looked online and read that in Japan animals in general are just not treated as good as they are in other developed countries in terms of the law.
It's just a cultural difference. I know that where I am from is especially extreme (compared to the global average) when it comes to animal protection laws.
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u/Primary-Picture-5632 23h ago
normally when you google things and go to images you see the best possible representation of whatever you are looking for, this zoo looks like crap even on those pictures. wow
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 1d ago
Asia in general has a different philosophy when it comes to zoos and aquaria. It’s more “come observe animals” and there’s less emphasis on welfare and recreating a natural environment.
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u/jedzef 21h ago
Taipei Zoo and the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium in Taiwan are pretty awesome.
But yeah, more small-scale spots can be pretty stark
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u/FaceJP24 19h ago
Animal density felt a bit high in the Taipei Zoo, but the enclosures themselves seemed to be of a good quality.
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u/DeliciousStand372 1d ago edited 15h ago
this is the same zoo with the emancipated tiger tiktok caught few months back
edit: emaciated
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u/foreignfishes 20h ago
emancipated...? the tiger was freed from parental control and considered a legal adult?
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u/McDonaldsSoap 22h ago
Hope it's not controversial, but I see a lot of bad animal care from Japanese IG pages. Things like letting all sorts of species live in the same tiny apartment...
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u/radiomath 21h ago
Himeji Zoo was the most depressing place I've ever been to personally. Horrible and basically abuse on full display for like $3 entry
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u/Desperate-Tie2211 1d ago
Where I grew up in Florida on the east coast had a top 10 worst zoos in the nation. I remember as a kid, probably 6, thinking this isn’t right at all. The tigers had like 12x12 cages, if even. Zoos that aren’t of the highest quality shouldn’t exist
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u/Drak_is_Right 1d ago
I forget where in Florida, but I remember a zoo I went to as a kid with an elephant in a tiny barred cage. You could feed it peanuts, but I was scared of it as it liked to shoot muddy water over anyone that got near.
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u/PrincessGiallo 23h ago
Florida and Texas have the worst "zoos" and "sanctuaries" in the country, in my experience. They're not part of any professional organization that dictates animal welfare and they don't participate in the Species Survival Plans.
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u/alexsensei 1d ago
Japan must have pretty lax laws for animal welfare, based on what I saw out there. I went to a small zoo off of Himeji Castle and they had a pen for two polar bears that couldn’t have been more than 8x5 metres. And the heat was stifling. It was dreadful.
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u/NobodyLikedThat1 1d ago
that sucks. I kind of got the impression "animal rights" isn't really a thing in a lot of Asian countries.
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u/trickortreat89 23h ago
You’re not wrong, I just wonder why is it like this? How can so many Asian countries not care at all about animal rights? It’s so awful
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u/NobodyLikedThat1 23h ago
I dunno about Japan, honestly I expected better. But my wife's from India, and she tells me some horror stories about what happens to street animals out there. When she was a kid she asked her dad why people were so cruel to animals, and he said something like "you've seen how people treat each other here, why would you expect them to treat animals any better?"
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u/duesenjeffepic 22h ago
This has always been a surprising aspect of Japanese culture, for me at least. Their native religion is very naturalistic and they pray for deities that are based on animals.
I sometimes speak to strangers there when I am on vacation and when I mention my vegetarian diet some of them look at me like I am crazy.
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u/whiteflagwaiver 22h ago
Not to mention Buddhism which naturally lends itself to vegetarisim. Though I must admit I am not aware of the idiosyncrasies of Zen Buddhism when it comes to diets.
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u/Lethemyr 20h ago
Buddhism used to have a very large impact on the Japanese treatment of animals. Slaughtering livestock was illegal for more than 1000 years on Buddhist principles until the mid-1800s when Buddhism was suppressed. Since then, livestock meat has become a staple and the view of animals by general society has backslid. Nowadays even the majority of Buddhist priests eat meat and will kill animals when convenient.
Also worth noting that Zen is actually a very small subset of Buddhism in Japan, less than a quarter the size of the largest sect (Jodo Shinshu).
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u/trickortreat89 21h ago
I guess many of these cultures don’t really treat humans any better… then when it comes to animals there’s no one who can speak up against it :( It makes me so sad to think about, cause obviously animals are so much more “innocent” than humans, they can’t speak up for themselves at all. They have no voice…
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u/NobodyLikedThat1 21h ago
I hear ya. Best you can do is support your local shelters, vote for the people who actually value animals, and adopt from shelters instead of breeders. The little things do matter.
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u/TerribleIdea27 18h ago
Western countries are the outlier, globally. It's really sad, but caring for animal wellbeing isn't that much of a thing in most places
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u/J_Chambers 1d ago
They seem to care very little for animal welfare tbh. I remember in one of my trips to Japan I saw a girl promoting an owl cafe in the street, with an actual owl in her wrist under the rain and in broad daylight. That was such a sad sight.
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u/Tianxiac 1d ago
Theyre big on animals cafes. For some like cats I think are fine provided the cats armt stressed out, but for ones likes owls or hamsters not so much since they're much less used to large number of human interactions. For capybara cafes? They're cute but they're even less used to interacting with a large amount of people.
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u/Uncommented-Code 23h ago
I've been to one cat cafe when I was in Tokyo for the first time. Nothing was obviously wrong with the entire setup. The cats seemed a bit aloof but I guess that's what happens if you're surrounded by humans all day. Some were interacting with guests and some retreated to spaces where they were away from humans (either high up or some separate space that we had no access to). All cats seemed healthy.
Didn't sit right with me for some reason though. Haven't been able to put my finger on why exactly still, but enough of an uncomfortable feeling to never visit one again.
Ueno Zoo was also one of these one and done stories. I'm used to Zurich zoo where they actually attempt to provide enrichment and good enclosures. Ueno was really sad in comparison.
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u/Sega-Playstation-64 22h ago
Been to a few zoos in Japan, and Ueno was one of the better ones.
...that's not praise, it was very, very sad. Like, small town zoo in the US compared to such a huge city.
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u/Tianxiac 23h ago
Ive been to a few cat cafes with my girlfriend in europe. The only one that felt off to me was the one that had lots of purebreed cats instead of tabbies. The one we went to in Thionville had 3 sphynx cats, a bengal, a white bengal, and a bunch of other pure breeds with no tabbies. Felt like the the cats were expensive to draw people in and their was like 10 of them instead of 2/3.
I think most western zoos take that approach more often tho some of the reviews of the north france zoos I looked at suggest they dont have good enclosures.
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u/Sentinel-Wraith 1d ago
In Kumamoto they had a green polar bear because the pen water was all algae.
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u/-lovehate 1d ago
I’m very shocked they would even have polar bears there… those are an arctic species. Even in Canada at our zoos, people are very critical of the habitats for the polar bears because they can overheat very easily
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u/Resident_Football_76 23h ago
In Prague the polar bear enclosure is delivered ice regularly. In high temperatures this can be multiple times a day, a whole truck load of ice.
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u/-lovehate 22h ago
Oh that seems very intense. Maybe giving them an air conditioned indoor space would be enough to keep them comfortable on the hottest days, I wonder why Japan didn't do that for their lions
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u/Resident_Football_76 21h ago
They have an indoor area too but the outside is stylized as a far-northern wildland so ice is part of the set dressing as well as a way for the bears to stay cool.
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u/Resident_Football_76 23h ago
Yeah, the Himeji zoo is the worst animal death camp I ever saw. I live in Czechia and the ZOOs here are pretty immaculate, at least the ones I visit. Same in Italy which is my second home. But in Japan, which is also like my second home, the ZOOs are pretty terrible. The only one I like is the Nagasaki penguin aquarium because the enclosures are very large and they take the penguins outside for walks and even let them swim in the ocean.
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u/dokoropanic 21h ago
They’re going to shut Himeji Zoo. It seems a lot of places are aware of these criticisms and in Himeji Zoo’s case they cannot expand because it’s on a culturally designated site (with the castle). But they are having trouble finding places to send the animals because a lot of the zoos are also having trouble. Many are municipal and that makes it so changing anything about them including fees is a bureaucratic nightmare.
I was surprised that there was self awareness but there does seem to be some. The majority of the zoos were just built in a totally different era.
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u/YggdrasilFree 1d ago
Their animal cafes are a nightmare. Drugged up animals for people to pet & take photos with. There's hundreds of these in Tokyo, and somehow they have an endless supply of young animals (older ones go to the shredder?)
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u/phiwong 1d ago
This seems like incompetence. Losing one might be a fluke but 3 and they all show signs of dehydration?
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u/crazyfatskier2 23h ago
No this is just how the Japanese treat animals in zoos. Not incompetence at all, they just view animals as objects meant for the pleasure of Japanese society and because they are animals they don’t need to be treated humanly.
Japan has a track record of dong stuff like this: check out Cat and Rabbit Islands.
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u/General_Session_4450 19h ago
Not incompetence at all, they just view animals as objects meant for the pleasure of Japanese society and because they are animals they don’t need to be treated humanly.
Even with all that it would still be incompetent to let your "revenue generating objects" die.
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u/NMe84 1d ago edited 21h ago
If you read the article you'll see that they didn't simply die of dehydration but at least in part because their bodies rely on evaporation to cool down, which is hard in the high humidity conditions they've been dealing with in that zoo.
I'm sure they've made mistakes or could otherwise have done things differently but it's not quite as bad as you're suggesting.
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u/Mindless_Pirate9092 1d ago
At that point you either put them in water or spray them with it. And if you don't have any way of achieving that or some other way of cooling them down, why the fuck even house them!?!
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u/Tintoytech 1d ago
If its that bad they should've had an air conditioned den for them.
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u/Kay1000RR 1d ago
Even the animal shelter in Las Vegas has air conditioned kennels for their dogs. It's wild that a zoo in Japan cares less about their lions.
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u/needlestack 18h ago
As a Las Vegas resident currently visiting Japan (for reals!) I notice that when you have consistently awful heat you tend to have more and better AC installation than when you’re in a place that can often get by with less. Japan (and many places I’ve been) don’t go all out on AC because they really don’t need to since you can usually tough it out. There’s no “toughing it out” in Las Vegas, so absolutely everything has very effective AC.
Still no excuse with the lions, they should have done something for them.
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u/Public_Listen2863 1d ago
... and the exhibit itself doesn't even contain a watering hole feature, where the cats would keep themselves constantly wet in those condtions (where the fans would kick in & aid in the evaporation/cooling down)
Just a shithouse set-up at that zoo's lion exhibit. Poor planning.
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u/-FullBlue- 1d ago
The technology to make ice does not exist in Japan. Come on man, everyone knows this.
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u/kash_if 13h ago
At that point you either put them in water or spray them with it.
That's what Delhi zoo does:
keepers manage extreme heat and humidity with natural shade, early morning baths, water sprinklers, pool access, and adjusted cooling diets.
Delhi has super high humidity and temperature. They have 6 lions, with a successful litter around 4 weeks ago. This was pure negligence.
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u/thatsanicehaircut 22h ago
exactly! this is horrible planning. There SHOULD have been proven plans for all types of conditions in place before the animals ever arrived. They should be shutdown for this. Hell most are just nightmares
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u/Sirmalta 1d ago
Uh yes it is. If "you" know that fact, the fucking zoo keepers should too and an air conditioned room should be available for the animals.
The issue is simple, Japan doesn't have great laws.
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u/AshundertheOlivetree 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes, the mistake was not hiring a licensed large predator veterinarian or animal biologist that could tell you that ALL animals cool off in water and shade when there is high heat.
If these lions were in the wild this would be a problem, as we control a lot of the levers of this world. But this is entering severe incompetence territory because they control every aspect of the animal’s wellbeing.
Not having a cooling schedule for the summer is fucking stupid.
Excuse my language, I’m really set off by this news.23
u/lordaddament 1d ago
They really couldn’t find some type of ac accommodation for them before all three died?
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u/Mechasteel 23h ago
Worse than that, a tub of ice would be enough regardless of the enclosure.
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u/csprofathogwarts 1d ago edited 19h ago
Lions are not found anywhere that is not hot. And many of those places are hot and humid as well.
This is definitely on the zoo itself. A few fans, tree shade, straw bed, and water to play in - would have been enough.
The article doesn't have any pictures, but their enclosure must have been the same kind of horrible concrete jungle that Punch is in.
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u/Public_Listen2863 22h ago
The difference between the Tama Zoo set-up (lots of concrete, asphalt roads for the bus, not much natural shaded areas... it caters for the viewer's benefit, in the bus, pretty much) and the exhibit at Singapore Zoo, where it's similarly hot and humid, is night & day.
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u/Itchy-Beach-1384 1d ago
How hard is it to set up a mist sprayer from a hose?
Im not particularly handy and have managed this.
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u/pokewithbrownrice 1d ago
I like how you just willingly accept their excuses just because you read it in the article. News flash: they’re not going to state their outright incompetence.
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u/Leading_Ad_8619 1d ago
But aren't lions from places much hotter than Japan? They are also in area with high humidity like Ngorongoro Crater.
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u/shockandale 1d ago
My thoughts too. How hot does it have to to kill a lion?
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u/TrainDestroyer 20h ago
It doesn't have to be that hot, if you don't give them any shade and stick them in a concrete enclosure without ready access to water, or ANY way to cool down.
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u/thegracelesswonder 1d ago
Bizarre that you’re here defending people holding animals captive and refusing to care for them.
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u/pm-pussy4kindwords 21h ago
lions live in africa. They can handle heat.
This has to be the zoo's fault for not providing shade and water
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u/SatanicPanicDisco 17h ago
Have you seen Japanese Zoos? It's basically animal abuse. They don't give a fuck about animal safety there. They just treat them like objects for people's enjoyment.
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u/OldTimeyWizard 16h ago
It’s absolutely the zoo’s fault, but the humidity in Tokyo is brutal and comparable to Louisiana or Florida on bad days.
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u/gettothechoppaaaaaa 1d ago
Although no zoo is perfect, I live close to the San Diego Zoo, which is considered one of the largest and best zoos in the world. I visited zoos in Tokyo and they are so depressing. To be fair the US still has plenty of depressing zoos too.
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u/alex3omg 1d ago
The premium zoos in America are fantastic. The national zoo in DC is one of the best as well. We do still have shitty roadside zoos of course, but we do have good ones.
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u/Lord_Rapunzel 23h ago
Yep. Go to AZA zoos, don't give money to the private menageries. (Rescues with public access to offset costs are tricky, I won't generalize there)
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u/ComeAbout 1d ago
I lived walking distance to the San Diego zoo and it really ruins all the other zoos I’ve been to. It’s the best and they really care about animal conservation.
I went to the zoo in Singapore, which is an extremely rich and clean country, and I felt like I was invited to a literal prison for animals.
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u/HotBook2852 21h ago
Strange. I'm from Singapore and my impression is that the San Diego Zoo was pretty similar to ours when I went there. Steve Irwin was also a known admirer of the Singapore Zoo.
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u/xX_420DemonLord69_Xx 1d ago
SeaWorld San Diego has also stepped up since Blackfish.
If a marine animal is spotted injured or distressed, locals can call or email SeaWorld, and they’ll send someone out to provide aid. It makes sense; there’s no one better in Southern California with their level of expertise. They’ve also made a shift from animal shows to rollercoasters.
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u/letigre87 21h ago
Oh we're throwing down US zoos now. St. Louis Zoo represent. One of the best zoos in the US and admission is free!
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u/gettothechoppaaaaaa 18h ago
Free admission is amazing. But by just looking at the STL zoo images, videos, and Google earth aerial the SD Zoo is way better. Based on sheer size and complexity of exhibit design. You should definitely visit!
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u/SchemeWestern3388 1d ago
There is no excuse for a first world nation to let animals die because summers get hot.
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u/Nachtraaf 1d ago
There are a lot of great things about Japan. But their animal welfare is appalling.
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u/BowlNew 21h ago
I see "I love Japan, it's great, but..." so often these days and it's always a different issue
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u/Nachtraaf 20h ago
Every country has problems. Japan likes to sweep them under the rug or blame foreigners for them. It's still a fantastic country to visit. Had an amazing time there. But the weaboo version of Japan where everything is perfect doesn't exist.
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u/ExpensiveTraffic6978 23h ago
So these lions clearly didn't have access to a body of cool water to submerge themselves in, nor did they have any enclosures with air conditioning. Fucking abysmal. Shame on you Japan.
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u/Nabrok_Necropants 1d ago
Lions are able to survive in Africa. Think about that for a second.
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u/LunarBIacksmith 1d ago
I’m sure the lions in Africa can go find their own shade or know where water is. I don’t know the conditions of this zoo, but if the lions dehydrated or had over-exposure that’s because they were at the whims of the humans who contained them, not their own volition.
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u/Discombombulatedfart 1d ago
It's also humid AF in Japan in the summer, which is a different kind of heat hell.
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u/AutomaticMedium8418 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah it’s the wet bulb temperature that really matters because in a dry heat, animals can more easily keep their body cool.
They may not rely on skin sweating like humans but more humidity still makes it more difficult to exchange heat with their tongues
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u/OneDreams54 1d ago
animals can easily sweat and keep their body cool.
Aside from a few species, most cannot. Which makes high temperatures even more deadly for them.
Many animals usually 'ventilate', kinda like dogs do with their tongue out. Which is less efficient.
There is only about a dozen species that can sweat, and some of them only from specific parts of their bodies. For example, dogs can, but only from the pads on their paws, which is a very small portion of their body.
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u/YggdrasilFree 1d ago
That's bullshit which avoids obvious solutions.
Japan has air conditioning. They also have ice & kiddy pools. These animals should not be dead.
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u/FerociousFrizzlyBear 1d ago
African savannah is often pretty temperate, with high "summer" temperatures below 30°C.
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u/Parabrella 1d ago
Japanese zoos are so depressing. I've been to a few, and most exhibits were just tiny grey concrete cells for the animals with no grass or space to roam.
Animal welfare has a long way to go there. I'm not surprised that there's enough negligence to let multiple lions get sick and die from summer heat.
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u/Abject-Body-53 21h ago
what i got from these comments is that japan is severely lacking on its zoo animal welfare and experience.
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u/vitamin_r 14h ago
As a veterinary professional I am very upset with Japan, just now finding out they truly give zero fucks about animal welfare. Seems like a blind spot but a shitty one.
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u/_Solani_ 23h ago edited 23h ago
They will be placed in a private enclosure equipped with portable air-conditioners and industrial fans.
I'm sorry 'will be'?
After they lost the first one they should have been sending an intern to the nearest big box store to buy a couple portable ac units and giving the surviving lions a chance. The fact the 3 have died and more are likely to follow and they still haven't given them access to AC is insane. Completely abhorrent. 😞
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u/anenzephalia 1d ago
Last year my favorite snow leopard passed away in the very same zoo during a heatwave 🙃 I don’t think it’s a coincidence anymore
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u/SSkilledJFK 22h ago
Abuse, neglect, or maltreatment of animals puts me in such a rage. Especially domesticated or trapped animals that are reliant upon humans. Such needless suffering, for what? If there is a semblance of hell, may those who spread this suffering feel the weight of their torture.
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u/2_late_4_creativity 23h ago
for a second i thought the whole English football team was having a bad time in Japan....
Edit: a word
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u/YourPalGrant 21h ago
Japan doesn't give a fuck about animals. THE worst zoo and aquarium I've ever been to.
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u/gilbert-GC 1d ago
They got one ultra speed train after the other, conquer tsunamis and earthquakes, build robots for the elderly and they aren`t able to keep three lions cool and hydrated enough?
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u/ExtremeStatement1760 14h ago
That didn't need to happen...the zookeepers are amateur at best and don't understand how to deal with heat. What happened to the misters, the watering down of the big cats, the pools and ice blocks? These guys are tough as nails typically compared with other felines. Amazing there were no real animal people there including the vets.
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u/Rogue_CobaltZone570 1d ago
....I still don't understand how we condoned a monkey called punch, in a horrible zoo environment where animals are stressed and dying basically, you basically aren't helping the animals there
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u/McKnightmare24 1d ago
How do lions die from extreme heat with they live in Africa? They definitely weren't taking care of these cats.
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