Tourists pluck feathers off 4 peacocks at Yangzhou zoo

This is the second instance of peacock plucking already this year at the zoo

Four unfortunate peacocks had their tail feathers plucked recently at a Jiangsu zoo that is struggling mightily to control its visitors.

The Liwan Zoo in the city of the Yangzhou boasts a large garden area where visitors are allowed to roam around freely with certain animals. Earlier this year, some visitors took advantage of this freedom to pluck the feathers off of one of the zoo’s peacocks.

The zoo responded to this incident by heightening security within the area and broadcasting a message that warned visitors against disturbing the birds.

But it turns out that these measures were less than ineffective. Recently, visitors to the zoo shot footage of four peacocks that had had their tail feathers plucked off.

This time around, the zoo has promised to assign an extra two staff members to watch over the area and has vowed that if the culprits are caught they will be blacklisted from the zoo and reported to police.

Because of their beauty, peacocks have unfortunately become a favorite target for Chinese zoo-goers. Last year, a family of tourists were spotted chasing after peacocks and plucking their feathers at Beijing’s Badaling Wildlife Park. The year prior, two peacocks were frightened to death inside of a Kunming zoo after being picked up and plucked by tourists.

But they are not the only zoo animals that live in fear of humans. Earlier this month, a kangaroo was killed at a zoo in Fujian province after being pelted with rocks by visitors who wanted to wake it up and see it jump.