Zoodunnit? From suspicious-looking pandas to human bears and painted zebra donkeys, the times when not everything is as it seems at animal parks after THAT whale shark attraction

A Chinese aquarium is in hot water after promising visitors a whale shark attraction which visitors quickly realised wasnt all it seemed.

Rather than getting up close to the worlds biggest shark, visitors who peered into the tank at Xiaomeisha Ocean World in Shenzhen quickly realised the giant fish was in fact a robot.

Visitors were reportedly fuming after paying the equivalent of £30 a ticket to see the sea creature - and were left feeling short-changed after being presented with an imitation instead.

It is by no means the first time that visitors have left wildlife attractions feeling cheated.

For years, zoos have tried to pass off common species as exotic animals - from lions to pandas and everything in between.

A Shenzhen aquarium has received backlash after visitors noticed that its whale shark was actually a robot

Several visitors demanded refunds 

Some have even resorted to dressing humans up as the beasts and using inflatable versions of the animals to try to hoodwink guests - often with very little success.

Low-budget penguins

Visitors at a zoo in China quickly realised its marketing team was full of hot air when they came across the attractions excuse for penguins.

Guishan Zoo in Yulin City touted the birds as one of their main features, claiming they had come all the way from the South Pole.

But when locals arrived they were disappointed to find a concrete pool filled with plastic inflatable penguins.

One of them was positioned on an island in what the park called a penguin pit. A sign was even said to have been put up warning Penguins bite, do not touch!

The deflated blow-ups were strewn across the empty trough, making a depressing scene for the excited youngsters who had come to catch a glimpse of the exotic birds.

To add insult to injury, the promise of ostriches and peacocks on promotional posters was also not honoured.

A Chinese zoo in southern China was forced to shut down after being slammed for putting up inflatable animal toys as real penguins

The only real animals at the so-called zoo were chickens in cages, geese and tortoises.

One of the tortoises was displayed in a glass box, with a handwritten sign reading fortune tortoise and urging people to throw money inside for luck.

The zoo has since closed down. 

Monkey business

A zoo in China attracted criticism from families after they noticed two very human-like gorillas jumping around in the animals enclosure.

They quickly spotted that the primates were in fact humans in full gorilla suits jumping around in the animals enclosure. 

The bizarre exhibition took place at the Yancheng Wild Animal World in Changzhou, a city in eastern Chinas Jiangsu Province.

The zoo defended itself, saying the human gorillas were a special programme designed by the management to entertain tourists on April Fools day. The gorillas were said to be played by actors.

The zoo said it had not expected the arrangement to cause misunderstanding from visitors.

A zoo in China attracted criticism from families after they noticed two very human-like gorillas jumping around in the animals enclosure

A statement on its social media account said: Actors wore gorilla clothing. They sometimes sat down and sometimes played on the swings. The purpose was to bring happiness to the public.

In a similar mix-up at a zoo in Tenerife in 2014, a keeper dressed as a gorilla during a training exercise was shot with a tranquiliser dart after being mistaken for a real primate on the loose.

Painted pandas

Another zoo in China went viral after passing off white puppies - painted with black ears, eyes and legs - as pandas.

Visitors demanded their money back from the park in Guangdong Shanwei which says it is home to rare and exotic animals. 

The animals started to arouse suspicion over their true identities when they were seen panting in their enclosure. 

It came just months after Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu Province also sparked fury in May when it too allegedly dyed two small Chow Chow dogs to look like pandas.

These dogs had their fur trimmed short before black and white dye was added to their face and body.

A Chinese zoo has sparked fury after it painted dogs black and white and presented them as pandas

A video shared on YouTube shows the puppies with black ears, limbs, and ears and with dark circles around their eyes

Visitors said they became suspicious when the pandas started panting in their enclosure

The attraction was quickly slammed by locals who accused the zoo of animal cruelty.

The zoo defended showing the panda dogs as they dont have any of the actual animals for visitors to see.

Back in 2014, one Italian circus troupe also painted chow chow dogs to make them resemble the black and white bamboo eaters.

Attendees could pay to have photos with the pandas before the scheme was stopped by authorities. 

Mighty Lion

Another China zoo was also forced to apologise after it tried to pass off a dog as a lion.

Angry visitors to the Peoples Park in Luohe, Henan province, complained when the African Lion started barking. 

Zoo staff admitted that they had pretended the Tibetan mastiff was a lion because they could not afford to have the real animal, local media said.

Visitors fury after staff in China try to pass off Tibetan mastiff as a lion

Mr Liu Suya, chief of the parks animal department, insisted the zoo did have a lion but it had been taken to a breeding facility.

As for the dog that was in its cage, Mr Liu said it belonged to a employee and had been put there for safety reasons.

A spokesman for the zoo said: Were doing our best in tough economic times.

If anyone is unhappy with our displays we will give back their money.

The same zoo also got heat for placing two giant sea cucumbers in the reptile house to make them pass off as snakes. 

Fake zebras

A zoo in Egypt was at the centre of another animal painting controversy in 2018 when tourists alleged it had painted white donkeys with black stripes to look like zebras.

Cairos International Garden municipal park denied the animals were fake - but suspicious pictures appeared to show smudging. 

An Egyptian zoo was caught allegedly attempting to fool visitors by painting black and white stripes on a donkey to make it look like a zebra

Student Mahmoud Sarhan pointed out that the zebras were in fact painted donkeys 

Student Mahmoud Sarhan, who visited the attractions, pointed out that the animals had been smaller than normal zebras with larger, pointier ears.

He shared a picture of the zebra on Facebook and it went viral.

Mr Sarhani, can be seen posing with the donkey with a wry grin on his face, maybe already knowing, that all is not what it seems. 

On closer inspection of the ass, you can note a few things, firstly the long floppy ears which bear more resemblance to that of a donkeys ears than the more rounded satellite dish-style ears of a zebra.

Secondly, a slight tuft of jet black hair on the donkey, rather than the larger shaggier mane a zebra usually has on the nape of its neck.
A number of vets within the country were quick to confirm that the animal was indeed a donkey.

Man or Bear?

Visitors flocked to a China zoo back in 2020 after speculation broke online that their sun bear Angela was in fact a human. 

The grizzly beast was seen standing on two feet and clumsily trying to catch the food thrown into the enclosure by visitors. 

) A sun bear is seen at Hangzhou Zoo in Hangzhou, east Chinas Zhejiang province

A video of a four-year-old sun bear standing upright like a human being at Hangzhou Zoo in east Chinas Zhejiang Province went viral on social media last year, attracting an increased number of tourists coming here to see it

Sun bear seen standing up 

A sun bear enjoys fruits at Hangzhou Zoo in Hangzhou, Chinas Zhejiang Province, August 2. Angela, 4, was seen clumsily trying to catch food thrown in by visitors in the clip

While this would often spark outrage among visitors, thousands of people travelled to the Hangzhou Zoo to see the bear. 

But the zoo insisted that Angela was a real bear, explaining that sun bears can look a little different to what we might expect. 

A spokesperson said: When it comes to bears, the first thing that comes to mind is a huge figure and astonishing power.

But not all bears are behemoths and danger personified.

They were also careful to dismiss claims Angela was a person in a suit, adding:

If you get someone to wear such thick fur in this summer heat, they wont last more than a few minutes before they need to lie down.

We are a government-operated zoo. There will never be situations like that.

Experts have also weighed in on the popular clip. Dr Ashleigh Marshall, an expert from Chester Zoo, told the BBC that the animal is definitely a real bear.