This video does not show monkeys wandering city streets to escape from the Sichuan earthquake

Screenshots of the tweets. 

(*Click to view larger image)

The Claim and Our Verdict 

The claim: A video of a troop of monkeys running around in a residential area claims to be taken during the earthquake in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. 

Fact-checking:  

• The video was taken near No. 241 Beijing Road, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province. It shows a troop of monkeys from Qianlingshan Park in Guiyang province entering a nearby residential area after the park’s closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.  
• The video’s narrator spoke the Guiyangnese dialect. Her narration can be partially translated as, “The monkeys in Qianling Park are coming down from the roof.” Qianling (Qianlingshan) Park is located in Guiyang, the capital city of southwestern China’s Guizhou province. 
• The video has been circulating on the internet prior to the Sept. 5 earthquake in Sichuan. Therefore, it was impossible for the video to be taken during the Sept. 5 Sichuan earthquake.

Our verdict: The video does not show monkeys entering the city to hide from the earthquake in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. The video was taken in Guizhou province and predates the Sept. 5 Sichuan earthquake.  

News Brief 

A video of a troop of monkeys running in a residential area was published Sept. 9, 2022, on Twitter, with the caption “Monkeys in Luding, Sichuan entered the city to hide from the earthquake. Don’t know if they have taken any nucleic acid tests for COVID-19…” The video claims to show the monkeys in Luding, Sichuan wandering city streets to avoid the earthquake. 

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake with a focal depth of 16 kilometers shook China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Sept. 5, 2022, the China’s Earthquake Network said. 

As of the publication of this report, the Twitter video had been viewed 4,019 times and retweeted eight times, and it had garnered 31 likes. Similar claims have been circulating on Facebook and Twitter.    

Fact-checking 

A reverse image search found a video published Sept. 4, 2022, on Weibo, which is consistent with the one on Twitter. The Weibo video has been circulating on the internet earlier before the Sept. 5 Sichuan earthquake, so it could not be shot during the Sichuan earthquake.  

The caption of the Weibo video could be translated as, “There were no tourists in Qianlingshan (Qianling Mountain), Guiyang. Monkeys went down the mountain today.” Guiyang is the capital city of southwestern China’s Guizhou province. HKBU Fact Check has contacted a local from Guiyang to verify the facts. It is confirmed that the video’s narrator spoke the Guiyangnese dialect. The narration could be translated as, “The monkeys in Qianling Park are coming down from the roof.” Google Maps shows that Qianling Park is located in Guiyang, Guizhou. 

Screenshot comparison of the Weibo video (left) and the Twitter video (right). 

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On Sept. 5, 2022, Litchi News, an online media organization in mainland China, published a video with identical scenes on Weibo. The Litchi News video claims that netizens in Qianlingshan reported to them that monkeys in the park had entered the residential area for food. The Natural Resources Bureau of Yunyan District, Guiyang also issued a notice on the same day that while Qianlingshan Park had been closed in view of the severe epidemic situation in Guiyang, monkeys in the park wandered to the surrounding residential areas for food after the park’s closure. Measures were being taken to bring the monkeys back to the park, according to the notice. 

Further keyword searches confirmed the exact location of the residential area where the video was shot. A place near No. 241 Beijing Road has been found to have similar street views as shown in the video. The appearance of surrounding buildings and the signs of nearby shops are consistent with those appearing in the video. 

Comparison between the street views near No. 241 Beijing Road, Guiyang (upper left and lower left) and those in the video discussed in the claim (upper right and lower right). 

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Therefore, the viral video was not taken in Sichuan province, but in Guizhou province. It captured the scene when monkeys fleeing from Qianling Park into the nearby residential area after the park’s closure due to the pandemic.