This is the bizarre moment zookeepers held an animal unveiling - dressing as African tribeswomen to celebrate the arrival of a giraffe and zebra.

The two workers were part of an official event welcoming the new animals at the state-owned Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand on Friday, October 6. It is the country's most popular holiday city outside of the capital Bangkok, with 10.8 million visitors annually, including many people of colour.

However, the two workers appeared ignorant to the sensitives of tourists and were seen at the event wearing black makeup, thick red lipstick, and skull caps. They had coloured robes, beads around their necks, hoop earrings, fake gold bracelets and held wooden staffs.

Astonishingly, they began dancing while making whooping noises to emulate the geographic stereotypes they believed to be a representation of African tribes in the plains where the new animals originated from.

Strangely, none of those present raised any concerns about the event, which zoo bosses had invited local reporters to, in order to publicise.

Chiang Mai Zoo director Wuttichai Muangman said a six-year-old giraffe named Wang and a three-year-old zebra called Ton Nhao had become the zoo's latest additions to the Africa Animals exhibition zone.

The boss said that the animals had arrived in order to justify a price hike that came into effect this month. After 10 days of quarantine with close care from the vet team, both of them were let into the exhibition zone to adapt to the new environment and their animal friends.

Before the arrival of Wang and Ton Nhao, the African Animal zone at Chiang Mai Zoo was home to five animals, which included just one giraffe, two zebras, 10 oryx, one eland, and one waterbuck.

The decision to transfer the giraffe and zebra to Chiang Mai Zoo from a facility in Khon Kaen province was made because both species are social animals and prefer to stay in groups, but the zoo previously had only one of each.

Blacking up, also known as blackface, is a type of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person. It is generally considered to be offensive, harmful, and racist.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been criticised for wearing blackface makeup to parties when he was younger.

While British actors David Walliams and Matt Lucas have apologised for their use of blackface for their portrayals of 'characters of other races' in their BBC sketch show Little Britain.