BBC

A zoo in central China has raised eyebrows this week after it was caught seemingly trying to pass off a dog as a wolf.

Social media footage appeared on Tuesday showing a visitor to the Xiangwushan Zoo in Xianning, Hubei province, visiting the zoo's wolf enclosure.

He filmed an animal that looked like a Rottweiler lying on its side in a cage, and said to the animal: "Woof! Are you a wolf?" in a short video that has since gone viral.

It has led to a lot of jokes online, but has also sparked debate about whether zoos are necessary in a post-Covid era, with many voicing concern about their maintenance.

Wolf had 'died of old age'

Mr Xu, who filmed the footage, told Beijing News that he had asked staff at the park why there was a dog in the wolf's cage. He said he was told that there had been a wolf, but that it had "died of old age".

An employee confirmed this to local media, and said that the dog, which had been raised as a watchdog by the park, was only being kept there temporarily.

But as the Shine.cn news website notes, he did also hint that the zoo had been financially struggling, saying it "didn't have enough visitors to keep the zoo up and running well".

The park, which charges 15 yuan ($2.30; £1.70) and also keeps lions and tigers, has now been told by the local forestry bureau to remove the sign leading to the enclosure.

'At least get a husky'

The incident has sparked a lot of discussion online. Many users on the popular Sina Weibo microblog say that it has given them a good laugh, although others say that they are "shocked" and that it actually makes them "a little sad".

"At least get a husky," one Weibo user says, noting that the breed would at least look more similar to a wolf. Their post received more than 6,000 likes.

Many users said they were relieved just to learn that the dog was not the wolf's dinner.

Some are talking about their own experiences as kids of visiting "poorly run" zoos, saying that reality never quite meets up to expectation.

There have been a number of well-publicised instances of zoos providing poor substitutes for wild animals.

In 2019, similar video footage showed a domestic dog in a wolf enclosure at the Jiufengshan Forest Park in the nearby city of Wuhan.

In 2017, a zoo in southern Guangxi promised penguins at its site, but visitors arrived to find inflatable ones.

In 2013, a Tibetan mastiff was passed off as an African cat at a zoo in Henan.

There have also been multiple cases overseas of donkeys being painted to look like zebras.