While people have a choice to escape tear gas wafting through the air and thousands of shrieking whistles being blown en masse, the animals at Dusit’s zoo are not so fortunate.
Tigers, sensitive deer and other animals at the zoo located near the seat of power in the Thai capital are vulnerable to stress.
“We tried to explain that the whistles could make the tigers panic and maybe jump over the hedge and escape into the open,” Deputy Director Wisid Wichasilp told the Wall Street Journal.
Deer are vulnerable to stress, such as the herd of Axis deer descended from ancestors donated at the zoo’s opening by King Ananda Mahidol, older brother of the current Thai king.
“Deer panic when they see strangers,” zoo keeper Kachon Subsatien said. “Their ears will keep moving when large crowds are around. They can tell the difference between the zoo keeper’s voice and a stranger’s voice. When they think something is wrong, they will be aware of it and are ready to move.”
Terrified deer panicked last month with police stomped through their pen in a move to defend the zoo from demonstrators who sought to stream through the compound to treach parliament nearby.
Police tiptoed past the enclosure on the way out, but staff had to run sprinklers – which apparently cool and relax the deer – running for two hours to calm them down.
A newly born doe had to be kept in seclusion as startled adults could easily have trampled the baby, Kachon added.
Last Friday, the doe and her mom were returned to the pen, Wall Street Journal reported.
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Photos: Johan Fantenberg, Thai Jasmine
