Visitors to a zoo in China got a rude surprise when the lion started barking. Turns out it was no lion, but just a Tibetan mastiff, a large, hairy breed of dog — which, for what it's worth ...

Visitors to a zoo in China's Henan ... described as an African lion was, in fact, a domestic dog. The illusion was shattered when the "lion"—really a Tibetan mastiff—began barking, according ...

Tibetan Mastiffs are a strong dog breed with a lion-like mane ... Earliest accounts of the Tibetan Mastiff date back to the 12th century B.C. in China. The ancestors of the present-day breed ...

A zoo in eastern China has denied suggestions that ... Henan province angered visitors by trying to pass off a Tibetan Mastiff dog as a lion. Visitors who had approached the enclosure expressed ...

But dogs can play more than just pandas. In Louhe, China, in 2013, a Tibetan mastiff was passed off as a lion. And at the same zoo, a dog was imitating a wolf and a fox was imitating a leopard ...

Countries including Ukraine, China, Germany, France, and Malaysia have banned or restricted ownership of this breed. The United States, as a whole, hasn’t outlawed owning a Tibetan Mastiff.