Footage of a monkey beating a seagull to death at Chester Zoo has gone viral on social media. Bec Adamson, 32, filmed the violent attack while on a day out with her family on Saturday.
The video, viewed more than two million times on TikTok, shows the primate in an enclosure as it slams the bird’s head against a pole it is standing on. After a five-minute battering, the monkey takes away the limp corpse to eat elsewhere.
Social media has been brimming with comments and reaction since we first wrote about the fatal attack. From those arguing it is just part of nature to those who think children should be shielded from such gory sights, here is a flavour of what you have been saying on Twitter and Facebook.
'That's nature'
Rachel Steele from south east Wales said: “If you go to the zoo to view wildlife, expect to see unpleasant things from time to time, they can’t stop their animal instincts because they are in an enclosure and you are watching. It is basic nature to these animals.”
Godfrey Oswald from London said: “That’s nature and the reason why some animals aren’t good as pets cuz they are feral wild animals. There was a time even humans were hunter-gathers and hunted animals the same brutal way. Funfact: a single adult monkey is 3 times stronger than an adult male! That’s nature too!”
Dave Ellis from Cheshire said: “Worked at Chester Zoo for a bit when I was younger and saw this kind of thing multiple times. They're wild animals. It's the food chain.”
Cally Priest from Lancaster said: “Wow a monkey being a wild animal. What do people expect it to have Etonian manners because it's in a zoo.”
Sylvia Milne from Cheshire said: “Great skill and dexterity. I wonder how often that happens in the wild.”
'I certainly wouldn’t stand there and watch'
Mandy Howells from south east Wales said: “Personally if I was to witness this in front of my children I certainly wouldn’t stand there and watch - or film it. I know it’s nature and I’m all for children learning about it but little ones really don’t need to see this - u never know what goes on in a young mind.”
Sam Cummins from Cardiff said: "Forget the children. I would have been traumatised. I feel sick just reading this. I love birds of all kinds. To see something like this would have sent me running off crying."
Christine Batterham from Somerset said: "It's vile and to be honest I really wouldn't want to see it but it's nature, as horrible as it is."
'Baby Kong'
Paul Hague from Manchester said: “Had a Tuna Sandwich viciously snatched by a seagull on Llandudno prom couple of years back. What goes around comes around. #teammonkey.”
Tweeting a gif from Planet of the Apes, Rav Chatha from Cheshire joked: “It’s happening!!… they are slowly moving in on us, first it’s seagulls, next it’s us!!.. Hollywood never lies!!”
Freda Wallace from Manchester said: “Its just havin' a word with it about the noise. Stop fostering division among the primate and wild foul communities!”
Gareth Mapp from London quipped: “Chimps are so clever, they’ll be battering Mars bars next.” Sarah Wegg from Norfolk said simply: “Baby Kong”.
Chester Zoo has been contacted for comment.
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