A zoo in China thought they could get away with labelling a Tibetan mastiff as an “African Lion”. To be fair, the Tibetan mastiff is a rather large dog, with long hair and a lion-like mane. It kind-of looks like a lion. Too bad it barks though, which is what gave it away in the end. Zoo visitors crowded around the animal waiting to hear the king of the jungle’s mighty roar, only to be bitterly disappointed when the “cat” let out a “woof”.
The zoo has tried to replace other exotic animals with even worse lookalikes in the past. The snake cage, for instance, contained two large rats and exactly zero snakes, while the leopard cage reportedly included fox-like animals. The park administrator said that the zoo does in fact have a lion, it had just been temporarily moved to a separate breeding facility. The dog reportedly belonged to a zoo employee and was put in the lion cage for safety.
Check out some pics of the Tibetan mastiff, or as the zoo called it, the African Lion.
