I was working on the statue and when it was almost to the top of the hill I put a villager on the bottom of the hill to have her push, so she walks up the hill just to right back down. I keep putting her back on it a few times before I think to check her action, I look at her action as she's doing it again and it says pushing statue just like it should, so at this point I'm like, how're you pushing it while you're walking away from it. So I decide to let her go where she wanted. I watch her go into the water and around to behind the statue where I can no longer see her. At this point I'm like, well that's an interesting way to do things. Next I know other villagers are following suite and walking (or running in case of one villager) around it like that. I think it was mostly her siblings(well half siblings!) doing it, though the one that ran was her father.