Bizarre Zoo Illusions: How Dogs Become Pandas and Zebras!

Bizarre Zoo Illusions: How Dogs Become Pandas and Zebras!

Two Chinese zoos caused a stir in a scandal over supposedly fake animal sightings. At the Shandong Province Zoo, a donkey appeared as a zebra after being implausibly painted with black and white paint. The animal's uneven color lines were so striking that visitors quickly realized that it was a donkey that was supposed to be sold as a so-called zebra. These questionable “marketing strategies” are not new for the zoo, which has previously been in the headlines when it dressed up dogs as panda bears to secure more revenue, as krone.at reported.

Outrage over panda bear imitation

Another incident occurred in Guangdong province, where a visitor filming "panda bears" at a zoo was disbelieved to discover that the animals were actually two painted dogs. This was illustrated by a video that was shared over 1.4 million times and received more than 725,000 likes on Douyin, China's equivalent of TikTok. Despite a sign that referred to the animals as “panda dogs,” there was widespread anger on social media. The practice of painting animals to pass them off as other species has been observed before, such as in May at another zoo in Jiangsu, where dogs were also painted black and white, Focus.de reported.

These bizarre incidents highlight a questionable trend in animal husbandry based on spectator appeal and raise questions about the ethics of such “attractions.”