Zoo Animals Fight With Each Other in Beijing After Witnessing a Tourist Brawl

Animals at a Beijing zoo amused tourists by imitating guests' quarrels and fighting among themselves. It is believed that this is the first time the animals witnessed a fight.

Tourist Brawl in Beijing Safari Park

According to a video shared on Chinese social networking site Sina Weibo by Beijing Daily, the tourists visited Beijing Safari Park on Saturday afternoon when an incident developed, leading to screaming and fighting.

In an internet video, men and women can be seen on the ground kicking and pulling each other's hair. A woman carrying a baby dashed forward, kicking and ripping the hair of another woman on the ground. Soon after, a man kicked the pregnant mother in the back, knocking her and the baby to the ground.

Many visitors and animals were watching as they screamed and tore at each other. After mediation, the two parties achieved an agreement.

Sources told Global Times that animals in the area were astounded by the incident because it was the first time they had ever witnessed humans fight. Then, the other animals in their own animal houses followed suit and began fighting, and the situation quickly escalated.

The park said in the same Global Times report that animals, under the patient training of the keeper, knew that fighting was not good. They implied that tourists fighting in the zoo is not a good idea.

The incident amused a lot of Chinese internet users. "High-quality human beings even made animals chuckle," one netizen said, while another added, "It's their turn for the animals to enjoy a circus." The term imitation has been used to describe a wide variety of animal behavior, from genetically regulated morphological anti-predatory adaptations like eyespots to the human propensity to exaggerate particular features, known as caricature.

"True Imitation"

Avian Visual Cognition said that the word imitation refers to a wide spectrum of animal behavior, from physically antipredatory adaptations like eyespots, which are fully genetically regulated, to the human ability to exaggerate particular traits, known as a caricature, which is primarily cognitively controlled.

Many imitative acts are reported today, and they are distinguished from "true imitation." It is proposed that much of the literature's ambiguity regarding what should be called imitation is due to the difference between the aim of imitation and the mechanisms that generate it. Finally, the many approaches offered to account for real imitation and an attempt to evaluate them are discussed.

Imitation is a somewhat hazy idea. "The Evolution of Imitation: What Do the Capacities of Non-Human Animals Tell Us About the Mechanisms of Imitation?" said that it is a strategy where a spectator saves time and energy by imitating another creature's solution to a problem. Others regard it as one of their most advanced cognitive abilities. The observer absorbs information about new techniques while drawing inferences about the efficiency of the observed methods, the situation's constraints, and the animal's goals and objectives.

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