Peacock Dies Of Shock After Tourists Pick Him Up To Take Photos

The troubling trend of mistreating animals for the sake of photos has claimed another victim.

A peacock held captive at a zoo in China was killed by a group of tourists who insisted on picking up the bird so they could have their picture taken with him. The peacock, frightened of being handled, is said to have died from shock shortly after.

Chinese news outlet Yunan.cn reports that staff at the Yunnan Wild Animals Park were alerted to the impromptu photo shoot, though by then the damage had been done.

"There are obvious signs in the zoo to ban people from catching peacocks," one zoo employee told Yunan.cn. "But there were too many tourists gathering at the time which made it too busy for us to ease the flow. When our working staff noticed the misbehavior, it's been late."

Although it's been reported elsewhere that two peacocks were killed, China Central Television reported that was not the case.

The zoo says that this is the first time an animal has been killed by unruly tourists demanding photos, but similar cases have begun to be reported with increasing regularity.

Last week, a group of tourists in Argentina made international headlines after reportedly plucking a baby dolphin from the ocean to take selfies, resulting in that animal's death. Days later, footage emerged of a man dragging a shark onto a beach for the sake of a photo. It's unclear if that animal survived.