(File Photo)

    BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhuanet) -- It's a well known rule not to feed animals when visiting  zoos. But now the Antwerp Zoo in Belgium, one of the oldest in Europe, has urged visitors to stop staring at the chimpanzees, media said Thursday.

    A sign posted on the glass outside the chimp enclosure requests onlookers not to stare at the apes. "Look away when an animal seeks to make contact with you, or take a step back," the sign reads. "Some individuals are more interested with visitors than their own kind."

    The sign especially urges visitors not to form a bond with a particular male chimp named "Cheetah."

    "He was raised by humans but is now trying to forge a social bond with the other seven apes at the animal park," a zoo official said.

    "We ask, we inform our daily visitors and other visitors that one of the monkeys is particularly open for human contact," the official told Associated Press Television. "He is raised by humans in a family and therefore we are trying to integrate him, to try to get more social integration with the group."

    Cheetah's continued interaction with humans was "delaying the social integration of the animal in the group," and isolating the ape from the others, she said.

    The zoo was not barring visitors from looking at the chimps altogether, she added. "Of course eye contact is not forbidden. We have more than one million visitors a year and of course they are very welcome still to have a look at the animals."

    (Agencies)