New Year’s Day 2015 at Tennoji Zoo

New Year’s Day might be an unusual day to go to a zoo, but since Tennoji Zoo in Osaka announced it would be open on January 1^st to start the celebrations of its 100^th anniversary, I thought I would go to see how the animals greeted the start of 2015.  (In usual years, the zoo is closed from December 29^th to January 1^st in observance of the New Year’s holiday.)

Predictably, there were congratulatory decorations, signs, banners, and a few commemorative goods for sale.  There were also a number of special events, and even free commemorative calendars for the first 1000 visitors through the gate. 

Despite the very cold temperature, there were a surprising good number of visitors in the zoo.  One of the crowd stoppers was the pair of young Jaguars (Panthera onca) that were born last August 9^th. 

The window of the exhibit was a bit dirty, so it was impossible to get a sharply focused photograph of the baby Jaguars.

Even if the photo isn’t sharp, they’re still very cute.

If only the exhibit was larger… and nicer… and had more natural elements…

Perhaps the biggest crowd of the day was the approximately 150 people gathered to watch ten visitors play a game of “tug-of-war” against Kojiro, the young male Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica).

They tied one end of the rope to a large bone that still had some meat on it.

When Kojiro grabbed the bone, the participants pulled on the rope - not with all their might, but with just enough resistance to give Kojiro some exercise.

There were a lot of video cameramen and photographers.  I think they were from the television stations and newspapers.  At least two of the video cameramen had armbands with the “NHK” television logo on it.

After about 10 minutes, Kojiro was allowed to enjoy his afternoon snack.

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on January 1, 2015.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)