OTARU, Hokkaido–In an apparent “rebellion” at an aquarium here, penguins on a diving platform ignored the instructions of a keeper, who motioned to them to jump into water.
They also refused to ride a seesaw. And instead of jumping over the hurdles of driftwood, the penguins mowed them down as they marched on.
These are but a few scenes from “penguin time,” among a series of attractions that began at Otaru Aquarium here in March.
The park in Otaru, Hokkaido, previously used “show time” to refer to its penguin shows and dolphin shows, which have since been renamed “event time.”
The name change is the brainchild of Masatoshi Tsunokawa, 58, the head of animal keeping at Otaru Aquarium.
Tsunokawa, who is also a veterinarian, said he used to feel at odds with the word “show,” which carries the nuance of something staged.
“Don’t you happen to know a better name for a ‘show’?” he began asking his colleagues several years ago.
Otaru Aquarium’s penguin shows were always known for being “too freewheeling.”
The show announcers did not care if the penguins did not behave as intended. They just sought to show, in a plain and enjoyable manner, what animals are like by their nature.
“We are just happy that our visitors have learned more (about animals) by the time they go home,” //Tsunokawa// said he and his colleagues thought.
Staff at the aquarium tried, as best they could, to avoid subjugating animals and instead made sure that animal keepers gave more commentaries. That gradually turned the shows into a venue where humans were “at the mercy of” the animals.
The name change was intended to further change the impression that the animals were being forced to do something.
The staff hesitated about changing the long-established name, but a push came from a trend for rising awareness of animal welfare.
Tsunokawa said that fellow keepers were also positive about the name change. If that is so, more than just the name could also be changed, he said he suggested to his colleagues.
A flood of new ideas poured forth.
“Why don’t we want to show how we measure (animal) weights?” Tsunokawa quoted one of them as saying. Another colleague proposed showing the features of specific body parts of animals.
Tsunokawa said the aquarium’s staff were too much occupied with completing the daily fixed routines of the shows, such as dives and the hurdles.
“That possibly left us without opportunities for devising, and practicing, new ways of showing things,” he said.
“The name ‘show’ gave a strong impression that we had to show something that can get a perfect score,” said Masahiro Niino, an animal keeper in his 11th year.
Niino, 34, said the name change to “event time” has made it easier for him and his colleagues to try new approaches for showing how animals behave when they are left to themselves.
During “walrus time,” keepers now drop food into a water tank, instead of handing it directly to the animals as they previously did, so the spectators can see how walruses use their whiskers deftly to eat the food.
During “dolphin time,” receptacles containing food are sunken into the water so dolphins have to look for them.
“They don’t eat food directly from human hands in the wild, do they?” Niino asked rhetorically.
Niino was a show presenter during “penguin time” on the day he was interviewed. Penguins were seen running in the wrong direction on a slide.
“These ones, in fact, have sharp claws at the end of their feet, which allow them to walk steadily up a hill,” Niino told the spectators.
“All (the penguins) were looking at was the fish that were given to them as food,” Chikako Yamanaka, 29, a visitor from Sapporo, said smiling. “And I think all this is good, because it respects the way that animals are living as they are.”
Niino said that having to repeat the same thing is stressful for the animals as well. He said he is trying to ensure that neither the visitors nor the animals are bored during the “event time.”
“No day is the same as another in the wild,” he said.
AloJapan.com