A China zoo has been forced to apologise after it tried to pass off a dog as a lion.

Angry visitors to the People’s Park in Luohe, Henan province, complained when the ‘African lion’ started barking.

Zoo staff said they had pretended the Tibetan mastiff was a lion because they could not afford the real thing, local media reported.

The state-run Beijing Youth Daily claims the zoo commonly replaced exotic animals with common species.

Elsewhere in the zoo, visitors found a mongrel dog in the Timber wolf’s cage and another pooch posing as a leopard in the big cat enclosure.

Then in the reptile house, keepers had placed two giant sea cucumbers which they were trying to pass off as snakes.

Mr Liu Suya, chief of the park’s 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: ‘We’re doing our best in tough economic times.

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