There were reports on Telegram that in one of the American private zoos for $5 you can take a photo with a macaque named Zelensky, dressed in recognizable clothes. Two photographs are provided as evidence. We have checked their accuracy.
The first publications about an unusual service at a zoo in Texas appeared on February 10, 2023. It is reported that the owner of the park decided, as if Zelensky was a suitable name for a monkey, and dressed the animal in khaki clothes with the coat of arms of Ukraine. The posts are accompanied by two photographs: one of the rhesus monkey itself, and the other of a sign listing its name, age (four years), weight (15 pounds, or 6.8 kg), and cost per photo ($4.9). “Perhaps Zelensky looks like this in the eyes of Western politicians, but it’s just more expensive,” add authors of some posts.
News about this action appeared in the TV presenter’s Telegram channels Ruslana Ostashko (132,000 views at the time of writing), "Observer"(237,000), Voblya (193,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(190,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(184,000), "Uncle Slava"(123,000), Fox News Russia (122,000), "Kot Kostyan - official channel"(117,000), Putin TG Team (89,000), "Bullet 18+"(84,000), "First patriotic"(77,000), "What's going on?"(67,000), "War history weapons" (52,000) and "Shaman Rahu"(2300). Posts about the service at the Texas zoo were shared on other social networks, including VKontakte (examples here, here And here) and Twitter (here, here And here).
If such a service exists anywhere in Texas, it appears to be in low demand. Firstly, “Verified” did not find a single photo of a person with a monkey on social networks, where it would be signed that the animal’s name is Zelensky. There is no mention of the action in any English-language media. On social networks, all the posts we found about this paid service in English were published later than similar posts in Russian. In addition, none of the publications we found indicated the name of a specific zoo, and it is impossible to determine the location in which the photograph of the sign was taken due to the absence of any remarkable details on it.
As for the photo showing a macaque wearing a greenish sweatshirt with the Ukrainian coat of arms, the photo was modified in a graphic editor. Thanks to the reverse search From the picture, we determined that in fact the animal was wearing a blue jacket (the blue outline and part of the blue hood even remained in the viral image). Probably, to make the search more difficult, the authors of the fake mirrored the photo, and also distorted the background and proportions of the monkey’s body.
The real photo was published on Pinterest on September 22, 2020, in the account of a woman named Tatyana. In addition, on the left side of the photo, which became the basis for the viral fake, you can see part of the sign, where in Russian they ask you to maintain order and not make fires. In the same profile there is collection entitled "Monkey Clothes", consisting of 18 photographs. On one from them you can see the logo and name of the eco-resort "Maryin Island", located in the Altai Republic.
In a conversation with Verified, Tatyana said that the original photo was taken in the summer of 2020 in the village of Chemal in Altai. The photo shows a monkey named Slavik, who at the time of photography was three and a half years old and weighed about 4 kg. In addition, Tatyana provided a photo of the animal from a different angle.
The earliest publication we discovered about a paid photograph with a macaque named Zelensky appeared in the Telegram channel “Rita Ebzeeva” (49,000 views) on February 10, 2023 at 17:04 Moscow time. Previously, this channel distributed fake photos related to other fictitious promotions and announcements. For example, “Verified” wrote about the Estonian gas station, where motorists with Russian license plates were allegedly prohibited from buying more than 10 liters of gasoline, and about the Ukrainian tattoo studios, which allegedly removes swastikas for half the price.
Thus, there is no evidence on the Internet of the existence of a paid photography service at the Texas zoo with a monkey named Zelensky, and the only photo used as evidence, which originally appeared in a Russian-language publication, was edited.
Cover photo: social networks
Fake
- Is it true that an advertisement appeared at the Berlin Zoo asking “not to feed leopards with Zelensky’s empty talk”?
- Is it true that graffiti with Zelensky in the form of a locust appeared in Madrid and New York?
- Is it true that an American TV channel accidentally showed Zelensky’s speech instead of a funny video with a dog?
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