Editor's note: This is part of a series of videos offering an up-close perspective on the animal kingdom. A special 360-degree video camera system was set up in zoos and other facilities to show how the animals view their world as they interact.

Also visit our special 360-DEGREE LIVES page (http://t.asahi.com/360lives), where you can watch all the previous videos.

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YOKOHAMA—A crowd of people stood and stared at the six-legged critters scurrying around, colliding, climbing over each other’s backs and engaging in combat. It was another day in the life for hundreds of beetles at an exclusive section of the Kanazawa Zoo here.

Hiroto, 5, and Yuto Asakura, 2, who came from Yokohama’s Konan Ward with their father, were the first visitors at the free-range area for 500 Japanese rhinoceros beetles one morning in July 2015.

The boys excitedly picked up the horned beetles for close-up looks.

The 100-square-meter section was part of the zoo’s special beetle event that offered visitors a chance to touch and interact with the insects.

Around 9 a.m., just before the zoo in Kanazawa Ward opened its doors, a keeper placed homemade jelly on the ground, prompting the beetles to crowd around their meal.

After satisfying their appetite, the re-energized beetles approached a video camera planted in the ground and started wrestling.

About 15 species of rhinoceros and stag beetles from Japan and abroad, including the Hercules beetle, the world’s largest, were displayed during the special event.