Chinese zoo almost got away with disguising hairy dog as a lion...until it started barking

A CHINESE zoo's supposed \"African lion\" has been exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking.

The zoo in the People's Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species, according to the state-run Beijing Youth Daily.

It quoted a customer suamed Liu who wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made - but he pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled \"African lion\" was barking.

The beast was in fact a Tibetan mastiff - a large and long-haired breed of dog.

\"The zoo is absolutely cheating us,\" the paper quoted Liu, who was charged 15 yuan ($2.70) for the ticket, as saying. \"They are trying to disguise the dogs as lions.\"

An actual lion (Picture: Marsel van Oosten)

Three other species housed incorrectly included two coypu rodents in a snake's cage, a white fox in a leopard's den, and another dog in a wolf pen.

The chief of the park's animal department, Liu Suya, told the paper that while it does have a lion, it had been taken to a breeding facility and the dog - which belonged to an employee - had been temporarily housed in the zoo over safety conces.

Users of China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo service mocked the zoo.

\"This is not funny at all. It's sad for both the zoo and the animals,\" said one.

\"They should at least use a husky to pretend to be a wolf,\" said another.