In a rare incident, a zebra in Kenya has given birth to a so-called zonkey after it mates with a donkey. Interestingly, the newborn baby has the body of a donkey, but it has stripey legs just like a zebra.
How zebra gave birth to zonkey?
Authorities revealed that this zebra was living in Tsavo East National Park. One day, this zebra walked out into the bordering park, and she mated with a donkey there.
As per a report published in Daily Star, authorities later transported the zebra to Chyulu National Park, after it became habituated to community life.
"At this point, the zebra had become fairly habituated to community life, so we had to choose her new home with that in mind. We settled on our Kenze Anti-Poaching Team's base in Chyulu National Park, so they could keep a close eye on her while she settled into her new home," said Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
Zonkey's rare looks
After some weeks, this zebra gave birth to a young baby, and authorities in the park were literally surprised to see the looks of the newborn. In usual cases, zebra foals are born with white and brown stripes which will eventually turn black. However, in the case of this new zebra foal, things were different, as it was overwhelmingly tawn in colour.
"At first, we thought that it had just been wallowing in the mud bath, but then the truth dawned on us: Our wayward zebra had given birth to a zonkey. During her time living within the community last year, she had obviously become acquainted with an amorous donkey," added the Wildlife trust.
However, experts made it clear that this newborn mule will not be able to reproduce in the future as the chromosome structure of its parents is different from one another.
