'This is the King of the Jungle': Zoo 'tries to fool visitors' by putting a DOG in the lion's enclosure
- Visitors were furious after finding just a golden retriever in the lion's enclosure
- They accused the Zhucheng Wild Animal Park in China of trying to trick them
- But zoo management claimed that the dog was there to nurse three baby lions
Visitors to a Chinese zoo have vented their fury after seeing nothing but a dog in the lion's enclosure.
Footage taken by one tourist shows a golden retriever lying on the ground of an enclosure while a signboard outside reads 'this is a young lion' and 'lions are the King of the Jungle'.
Visitors claimed the zoo in Zhucheng was trying to fool them, but the zoo explained the dog was there to nurse lion cubs.
Footage filmed by one visitor to the zoo in Zhucheng, China, shows a dog lying in an enclosure with a signboard saying 'baby lions'. Visitors have accused of the zoo of trying to fool them
The 22-second video was said to be taken at the Zhucheng Wild Animal Park in eastern China's Shandong Province.
In the footage filmed outside a glass-walled enclosure, a female voice is heard saying: 'This is a dangerous lion, so [we] need to surround it with glass.'
A child, believed to be the woman's son, then responds: 'What do you mean by a dangerous lion?'
The boy pauses before adding: 'It is a little dog.'
The clip emerged on China's Twitter-like Weibo on Sunday and came with a hashtag which translates as 'the zoo uses a dog to pose as a lion'.
According to the signboard, the enclosure is meant to display lion cubs.
The video was said to be taken at the Zhucheng Wild Animal Park in Shandong (pictured)
A keeper at the zoo said the golden retriever was in the enclosure to nurse lion cubs (file photo)
The management of the zoo have responded to the complaint, claiming the golden retriever was nursing three lion cubs in the enclosure.
According to a keeper, the zoo has two eight-month-old cubs and one six-month-old cub, but their mother is too busy to feed them.
'The golden retriever is the "wet nurse" of the young cubs and very close to the cubs, therefore [we] keep them together instead of separating them,' the keeper told local news outlet Dazhong Net.
Zhucheng Wild Animal Park occupies 612 acres and costs 350 million yuan (£40 million) to build, according to Chinese travel booking site Ctrip.
The zoo is said to have more than 2,000 animals, including 10 African lions, five Siberian tigers and more than 40 bears.
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