An adventurous deer in China literally wanted a piece of the COVID-19 containment action at the weekend, as it was caught on video chomping on a facial mask that was apparently snaffled from visitors at a zoo in Beijing.

The blame was initially laid on the visitors, with the video entitled “Tourists suspected of feeding animal with face mask” going viral on the internet following the incident at the self-drive safari zone of Beijing Wildlife Park in Daxing District.

In the 42-second clip, the deer was seen stretching its head into the passenger’s side of a private car, then withdrawing with a blue mask in its mouth and chewing it.

Occupants of the car appeared to be trying to retrieve the mask, to no avail. A zookeeper noticed the commotion, ran to the animal and immediately took out the offending article from its mouth. The whole incident was captured by a dashboard camera installed inside the car behind.

The video, posted on China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, triggered a lot of chatter online, with internet users being divided on whether the passengers had tried to feed the animal, or if the deer had helped itself to the mask. Some netizens commented that the video could not clearly show the specifics of the incident.

Police in Daxing District on Sunday released the official version, saying that a tourist had visited Beijing Wildlife Park with his son, 12, and his mother, 75, both of whom were sitting in the back seat of the car. During a ride inside the self-drive safari zone, a deer approached and stretched its neck inside, taking the mask, which was lying on a small table top. The passenger attempted to grab the mask but failed.

A marketing staffer from the wildlife park said they took the incident seriously, but would not comment on whether the tourist did it intentionally before carrying out an investigation.

Tong Long-ning, a Hong Kong veterinarian, said a large quantity of plastics in the gastrointestinal tract would harm the animal. Many wildlife animals swallowed plastic and paper by mistake, he said. Animals had been known to be found with lots of plastic inside the stomach after they died, and yet no symptoms could be visible while they were alive.

Vets would perform surgery or apply medicine only if symptoms of discomfort surfaced, and would also consider the value of the wild animal in terms of whether it was precious or protected, Tong said.

She advised zoo visitors to follow the rules if they wanted to keep a close distance with the wild animals, and to avoid feeding them.

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