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The tourists seen chasing the birds at the park. Photo: Handout

Chinese tourists chase peacocks, rip out their tail feathers at Beijing zoo

Birds attacked at wildlife park near the Great Wall in Beijing, according to news agency report

Tourists were caught chasing after peacocks at a wildlife park outside Beijing and ripping out their tail feathers, according to a new agency report.

Two men were shown attacking the birds at Badaling Wildlife Park at the foot of the Great Wall in a series of photographs published on social media, the China News Service reported.

One of the men was shown chasing the birds and another holding one.

Their wives and children were watching nearby or taking photos with a smartphone.

The park told the news agency tourists are allowed to approach, feed or take photographs of the peacocks, but not harm them.

The person who took and uploaded the photographs on social media said the group belonged to one family.

“This kind of behaviour is utterly uncivilised,” the person wrote.

He and several other families tried to stop the men on Monday, but they continued until all the peacocks were frightened away. “They were so brutal,” the witness wrote.

The park said the incident took place at a blind spot for surveillance cameras so staff could not intervene.

The park also has insufficient manpower to patrol every area during opening hours, it said.

One of the peacocks at Yunnan Zoo died of shock on February 12, 2016, as a result of being held forcefully by Chinese tourists while they posed for photographs, the zoo said. Photo: Handout

Two peacocks at a zoo in Kunming in Yunnan province died last year after mistreatment by tourists who held them for a photograph and then pulled off their feathers, according to media reports.

The zoo blamed the birds’ deaths on the tourists’ “violent behaviour”.

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