An animal rights group is campaigning to shut down an aquarium inside a Chinese shopping centre that's been dubbed the "world's saddest zoo."

The Grandview Aquarium is coming under increasing pressure to better the living conditions of the animals that live inside the shopping centre in Guangzhou, particularly a male polar bear who's been filmed lying lethargically on a concrete floor.

In another video of the bear, captured by Animals Asia, visitors are shown repeatedly tapping on the animal's glass enclosure, hoping to capture its attention.

"Nowhere to hide from people taking photos – banging on the windows and shouting," the animals rights group says in a petition that calls for the aquarium's closure.  "Nothing natural, no attempt to create an environment that would meet the needs of any living bear – never mind this vast magnificent animal.”

The aquarium is also home to five walrus calves, six beluga whales and two Arctic wolves, which, according to the Animals Asia, live in "woefully inadequate space."

"This is a bear that suffers for what? For selfies? For shopping?” the group writes.

As of Thursday, the petition has garnered more than 330,000 signatures.

Camille Labchuk, a lawyer and executive director of Canadian charity Animal Justice, said she's not surprised by the international outcry.

"The only possible response to seeing images of animals at the Grandview zoo, and especially the polar bear, is just to feel heartbroken," she told CTV News Channel on Thursday. 

She said the beluga whales and walruses are housed inside "tiny" tanks and the wolves pace back and forth in their enclosure.

"This is not normal behaviour," Labchuk said. "It’s neurotic responses developed as a coping mechanism to deal with the tiny conditions the animals are confined in."

Labchuk said while it may be easy to feel outraged about animals' living conditions in foreign countries, there are animals "languishing" in Canadian zoos in similar conditions.

However, she did say public opinion over the treatment of animals in captivity is rapidly changing.

For example, circus elephants are no longer part of the Ringling Bros. show, and SeaWorld recently announced that the killer whales currently at the park will be the last generation of the mammals in their care.  

"People are putting their feet down, and saying enough is enough."