5 Zoos That Faked Its Animals
If you got inspired to buy a zoo by Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo but didn’t actually watch the movie, you probably found out quickly that buying and caring for exotic animals is hard and expensive. Most people stop at that initial Google search, but some zoos become determined to keep animals ’ even ones they don’t have.
The Pandas That Were Dogs
In 2024, guests of the zoo in Shanwei, China were admiring the panda displays when one of the “bears” suddenly started barking. In videos posted to social media, another frolicked across the grass in a distinctly dog-like manner, wagging its extremely dog-like tail. Zoo officials initially claimed they were rare “panda dogs,” but when those turned out to be rare to the point of nonexistence, they confessed that they had painted Chow Chows to look like pandas.
The Lion That Was a Dog
Likewise, in 2013, photos emerged of the African lion enclosure at China’s People’s Park Zoo, which contained a Tibetan mastiff, a breed of dog with a luxurious mane of hair that’s nevertheless not a lion. The zoo claimed the African lion was on vacation and the dog was subletting its digs due to vague “safety concerns,” but they had a whole lot of animals in the wrong cages, including a fox in the leopard exhibit and another dog in the wolf pen, so maybe those animals were just making a go of it on Airbnb.
The Zebra That Was a Donkey
In 2018, a visitor to Cairo’s International Garden animal sanctuary noticed that its “zebras” were awfully small, their ears were weird and pointy, and they had paint visibly smudged on their faces. Zoo officials initially denied that the zebras weren’t real before admitting weeks later that, yes, they had just painted some donkeys.
The Penguins That Were Inflatable
At least those zoos used live replacements. In 2017, China’s Guishan Zoo advertised rare and exotic animals but only displayed a few geese and roosters, a tortoise and several inflatable penguins. The owner of the property announced they had no idea the zoo intended to use fake animals, while the zoo offered no comment and closed soon thereafter, because really, what else can you do?
The Animals That Were Dead
The Khan Younis Zoo on the Gaza Strip had once been home to hundreds of animals, but by 2016, they were down to just 15. About 50 of the rest were still on display — some even in the same cages as their former friends and lovers — having been stuffed and mounted. That year, a rescue group relocated the remaining specimens on the condition that the owner never work with animals again, as it was unclear what had caused so many of them to die, though he blamed it on the ongoing conflict with Israel.
By displaying the corpses, he said he hoped “to prove to the whole world that even animals (were) affected,” and while that’s a noble goal, it’s also not a zoo at that point. A cemetery just isn’t a fun outing for the kids, you know?
