The highly anticipated grand opening of a zoo in China turned out to be a rather deflating experience for patrons.
Based on advertising for the attraction, visitors were expecting to see exotic animals when they entered the first zoo ever built in the Chinese city of Yulin.
However, many were dismayed to discover that those promises turned out to be a lot of hot air.
In addition to commonplace creatures such as turtles and roosters, the zoo also featured an odd display that created quite a buzz on Chinese social media: inflatable penguins in place of the real thing.
Although one might wonder if the faux birds were some kind of satirical message about the cruelty of keeping animals in captivity, that is unfortunately not the case at all.
In fact, the owner of the zoo revealed to a Chinese media outlet that an outside contractor was supposed to procure the penguins and, clearly, failed to find the iconic black-and-white birds in time for the opening.
The negative publicity surrounding the zoo's disappointing collection ultimately led to it quickly shutting down, disappointing the handful of people hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive inflatable penguin in captivity.
Source: South China Morning Post