On April 1, an incident truly fit for April Fools Day unfolded at Tokyo Disney Resort. At DisneySea’s popular attraction ‘Lantern Festival’, the character ‘Rapunzel’ had her golden hair mercilessly plucked by crows. In addition, the horse character ‘Maximus’ from the story was also found with signs of fur damage.

The culprits were ‘crows’. Spring is the busiest season for them. Between March and April, crows enter their breeding season and begin building nests in earnest. In this process, they are not picky about materials. To keep the inside of the nest warm, they prefer soft fibers, and that can include not only animal fur but even human clothing fabrics.

In fact, during this period it is not uncommon to observe crows entering zoos, perching on other animals’ backs, and pulling out their fur. To a crow, Rapunzel’s long, soft hair is nothing more than excellent construction material.

According to local experts, in Japan, where crow numbers are high, problems far more troublesome than simple ‘fur damage’ occur frequently at this time of year. Crows prefer high places when building nests, and they often use utility poles as key bases. This is because the structures are stable and essentially block access by predators.

There are many cases in which branches or metal hangers used as nesting materials come into contact with power-line equipment and cause leakage currents. If safety devices trip and cut off the power supply in the process, it can lead to large-scale blackouts.

Recently, there was even an incident in which the Shinkansen halted operations due to a crow’s nest. In Japan, animal-related power outages exceed 800 cases annually, and a significant portion are reportedly linked to crow nests. As a result, authorities have increasingly been offering rewards when citizens report nests they find.

On the 4th, Oriental Land, which operates the Disney resort, told multiple outlets, “Due to the damage to Rapunzel, the attraction was suspended for 10 to 15 minutes, and Rapunzel is currently concealed inside the tower for repairs.”

As for what measures are planned for Rapunzel going forward, it said, “We cannot yet answer regarding the details.”