A female zebra gave birth to a zonkey (half zebra, half donkey) named Telegraph at the Taigan zoo in southern Crimea. A mother zebra is a rarity among the cross breed, according to the Guardian.
Zookeepers at the private zoo, located near Simferopol, noticed the zebra had been lonely and uncomfortable in her enclosure, so they moved her in with other hooved animals. She soon grew attached to a donkey.
"On the advice of a zoologist we moved her in with several other hooved animals and she really liked the donkey," said zoo director Oleg Zubkov. "As a result of their affection for one another we've gotten Telegraph."
The zonkey or zebroid shares the zebra's signature stripes around its legs and has a brown donkey coat over the rest of its body. The exotic animal is a favorite among zoo visitors and received its name from a local newspaper celebrating its fifth anniversary.
A animal reserve in Florence, Italy welcomed a zonkey last year. A zebra rescued from a failing zoo bred with a donkey from an endangered breed in Amiata (located about halfway between Florence and Rome). Zebras and donkeys both belong to the Equidae family.
Other zonkeys exist in Germany, China and Germany, but the larger zoo community doesn't agree with the cross breeding of any animals.
"Such things don't happen in civilized zoos, but can occur at private zoos or on farms," Anna Kachurovskaya, a spokeswoman for Moscow zoo, told the Guardian. "This sort of marketing is not justified or scientific ... zoos are for preserving wild species, that is one of their most important goals."
The most common hybrid breed is the mule, a cross between a female horse and male donkey. Other hybrids include ligers (male lion and female tiger), tigons (female lion and male tiger), yattles (cow and yak) and yakalo (yak and buffalo).
