Chinese Zoo 'Glues' Basket To Tortoise's Shell For Tourists To Throw Coins In

Pictures have emerged online of a tortoise at a Chinese zoo with a basket 'glued' to its shell for tourists to throw money in.

The photos show visitors at Nanning Zoo in the provincial capital of Guangxi chucking coins at the African spurred tortoise, which has a basket and a Chinese flag attached to it.

Weibo/Tea-tia

The pictures were shared on Weibo (which is basically like Twitter) by user Tea-tia, who said they were taken during the National Day of the People's Republic of China on 1 October.

Tea-tia's post accused the zoo of trying to 'swindle' people out of money and urged the National Forestry Bureau and state media to investigate the matter. He also said the tortoise was being kept in a 'very bad environment' with no keepers in sight.

Speaking to Pear Video, he said: "I don't know why the zoo would use this method to exhibit precious animals."

The zoo is now investigating the matter, according to the Daily Mail.

Throwing coins is considered by many in China to bring good luck, but the superstitious ritual had quite the opposite effect earlier this year when a Chinese man threw two coins in a plane's engine prior to departure.

The 28-year-old man - identified by his surname Lu - chucked the coins in while boarding the Lucky Air domestic flight from Anqing, Anhui to Kunming, Yunnan with his wife and one-year-old child on 17 February.

Weibo

Lu ended up getting detained by authorities for a week after the coins were found on the ground near the engine as the pre-flight check took place and Lucky Air subsequently decided to sue.

In a statement, Lucky Air said: "The incident caused a direct economic loss of nearly 140,000 yuan [£15,500], and our company will press charges against the passenger in accordance with the law."

Ouyang Jie, a professor at Civil Aviation University of China, told China Daily that the engine of an aircraft would be severely damaged or even destroyed by something as seemingly harmless as a coin.

The professor said: "The engine could tremble, lose speed and even stop in mid-air if a coin were sucked into its core. That would put all the passengers on board at great risk."

South China Morning Post reported that all 162 passengers had to wait until the following day to fly to their destination.

Topics: World News, Animals, China

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey