This week, news of a family in China who had allegedly thought they had adopted a Tibetan mastiff was circulating after it was revealed that the dog was, in fact, an Asiatic black bear. The family, who had raised the bear for two years on boxes of fruit and buckets of noodles, told local media they couldn’t figure out why the animal kept growing, and were reportedly surprised to learn of its true identity.

Perhaps surprisingly, this sort of mix-up happens fairly often. There are other stories of people who have taken in animals thinking they’re domesticated, only to realize the animals are wild creatures. Earlier this month, a woman handed over a fox to a Chinese zoo