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A wolf in dog’s clothing? Chinese zoo brings fake wildlife exhibit claims to heel

  • Nature park says there was no attempt to dupe visitors with lone domestic canine in enclosure

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Visitors say they only saw a dog in the wolf enclosure at a zoo in Wuhan on the weekend. Photo: Thepaper.cn
Laura Zhou

What’s the difference between a dog and a wolf? That was the question visitors to a zoo in central China asked themselves on Saturday when they found a lone dog of indeterminate breed loping around an enclosure signposted as housing wolves.

“That’s a dog, not a wolf,” a visitor to the Wuhan Mt Jiufeng Forest Zoo in Hubei province says in a video posted online and widely shared.

The dog-wolf appeared to be the latest addition to a long list of improvised wildlife at Chinese nature parks that has included inflated toy penguins and plastic butterflies.
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But the zoo told Shanghai-based news portal Thepaper.cn that there was no attempt to deceive visitors.

A staff member at the zoo said the dog was a companion of the wolf, who happened to be taking a rest indoors when the footage was shot.

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“The wolf was alone there because he couldn’t get along with other wolves. He was always fighting and getting hurt,” the employee was quoted as saying.

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