Lion Goes Viral With His Bizarre Hairstyle; Zoo Authorities Insist He Styled Himself
A white lion at Guangzhou Zoo has gone viral for a hairstyle nobody expected to see on a big cat. Hanghang, a male lion in southern China, was photographed with a fringe that made social media users do a double take, and plenty of them assumed the zoo had somehow been behind it.
The pictures spread after a visitor posted them online, turning a routine zoo visit into a debate about whether the lion had been groomed, neglected, or simply caught in an awkward moment. The zoo pushed back on the backlash, while the unusual look kept drawing attention across Chinese social media.
Now the fringe has its own explanation, and Hanghang is still the one stealing the spotlight.
Guangzhou is one of the largest cities in China, with a population of over 18 million.
The city is located in a subtropical monsoon climate zone, making its weather warm and humid all year round. Summers in Guangzhou are long, humid, and hot, while winters are short, mild, and sunny.
The Guangzhou Zoo authorities said Hanghang must have groomed himself by licking his paws and pawing his fur, resulting in the fringe hairstyle.
There is no hairdressing program at the zoo, and they say they would not cut a lion's hair. Lions spend a significant amount of time daily licking themselves clean, much like house cats do. However, the goal is not just to get clean but also to remove as much of their scent as possible so that prey won't notice their presence.
And if you want a totally different kind of chaos, watch lions mating on a safari jeep leave tourists laughing.
In the wild, for instance, if a lion lies in wait and an antelope gets a whiff of the lion's scent, it will run away.
So lions groom themselves to eliminate any smell that may give them away. Despite the Guangzhou Zoo authorities' best efforts to refute the accusation that they were responsible for giving Hanghang the fringe haircut, some Chinese social media users insist they are to blame.
This is not the first time an animal has made headlines for sporting an unusual haircut. In 2020, a Tamil Nadu temple elephant became a sensation on the internet after she was photographed with a bob-cut hairstyle.
Netizens named her "Bob-cut Sengamalam," and thousands of people flocked to the Rajagopalaswamy Temple in Mannargudi, India, to see her.
Some animals just know how to go viral.
For another lion moment that sparked huge debate, read about Lincoln Park Zoo’s majestic lion roar.
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