Zookeepers have slammed people seen here involved in a mass punch-up for behaving like animals and inspiring fighting among the other animals in cages.

The staff said they were amazed that after the scene quietened following the mass punch-up that included one woman with the baby attacking other women and then being kicked to the ground herself – the animals had started copying them.

The shocking scenes which are believed to be the first time the animals had seen humans fighting took place at the Beijing Safari Park in China on Saturday afternoon.

It is unclear what the argument was about, but it quickly escalated into swearing and then fighting, according to a video that was widely shared online on Chinese social platform Sina Weibo.

It includes the woman and the baby who grabs another woman on the ground by the hair and that woman is attacking somebody else. She tries to kick the woman with the baby without success, as she only half-heartedly tries, but another man has no such reservations and gives a flying kick that sends her falling to the floor with the toddler in her arms.

In a statement the zoo staff posted on We chat it said: “They shouted at each other, tore at each other and many tourists and animals were watching. The two sides reached a settlement after mediation.”

However after the excitement had died down, and the two sides had apparently settled the matter between themselves, zookeepers said that by the evening, the animals who had apparently seen humans fighting for the first time decided to copy them, and also started fighting.

A zoo spokesman told local media that it had even got out of control.

The zoo said that keepers had spent ages trying to teach the animals that it was not good to fight in their small enclosures, and that their work had been ruined by the bad behaviour of the human visitors.

The statement continued: “Under the patient education of the keeper, [we believe] animals knew that fighting was not good.”

Online commentators who widely shared it said it was good for the animals to have a laugh at the humans for a change.

Another wrote: “It’s their turn for the animals to enjoy a circus.”