Yup, this actually happened in a zoo in China.

Wait, is that really a lion?

According to a report by South China Morning Post, a man only known as Tang took his child to visit the zoo located in southwestern China and was shocked when he reached the enclosure for the African lion.

That is because instead of an African lion, he found a very confused-looking golden retriever looking back at him!

“At first, we thought we had gone to the wrong place. But after walking around the cage, we realised it is where the lion should be housed.

“Is that an African lion? Is it because it hasn’t grown up yet? It looks familiar to me,” he jokingly said in a video that he took of the situation at the zoo.

The report said in the same video that has been widely circulated on social media, a zoo worker confirmed that a lion had been in the cage but it has since been moved to another location.

However, Tang is not having any of it as he claimed that the zoo had no lions anywhere else in its vicinity but they are selling tickets promoting lions.

“The money for the ticket is a small deal. What matters to me more is that I don’t know how to explain the current situation to my kid,” Tang was quoted as saying.

According to Global News, the golden retriever was purportedly the owner's pet, and they were using the cage to house it for the time being.

The report added that this is not the first time a zoo in China has pulled this act, as only earlier this month, another zoo in the country was exposed for putting a Rottweiler in a wolf’s cage.