Chinese Zoo Hopes No-one Notices Dog Posing as a Lion

A Tibetan mastiff. Photograph by MrNiceGuy1113/Wikimedia

Visitors to Louhe City Zoo in the central Henan province in China were surprised when barking came from the supposed “African lion”.

Chinese media reports that the zoo in the city of Louhe had replaced the “feizhou shi” (African lion) they did have on display with a Tibetan mastiff dog owned by one of the zoo staff.

The Tibetan mastiff is a particularly hairy breed of dog, and it appears that the owners of the zoo had hoped that people would not notice the difference whilst the lion was sent to a breeding centre.

A number of other animals in the zoo were also mislabelled, with another dog posing as a wolf, and a white fox claimed as a leopard.