Can You Believe It? A Zebra Fell In Love With A Donkey And Gave Birth To Zonkey!

No matter how much we have learned about the world, it seems like we are still far from understanding everything of Mother Nature. This incident is an example of that.

People at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust were shocked when a female zebra delivers a hybrid of her species and donkey. People called the offspring Zonkey.

The trust later explained that in May last year, the KWS Community Warden called the SWT/KWS Tsavo Mobile Veterinary Unit about a zebra that had gone astray from her zeal in Tsavo East National Park into a human community right next to the park.

The zebra had no trouble mingling in the life there and even entered the cattle herd of a woman in the community. She was there for weeks before the local media made public the story and the team was called to take the zebra to a more suitable environment.

By the time the team knew about the stray zebra, she had already got herself used to life with the community so the team had to pick a location with that situation in mind.

The zebra was brought to the base of Kenze Anti-Poaching Team in Chyulu National Park. After waking up at the new place, she usually frequents the water hole and the team often sees her.

Recently, the fence maintenance team caught sight of her and a strange-looking foal.

Baby zebras usually have white and brown strips which will turn into black with time. However, the offspring is more tawny than strips. People thought the baby might have played in mud but later they realized that it is a hybrid.

The gestation period of zebras is 12 months so the mother must have mated with a donkey while she was in the community. However, since the zonkey is a mule, it will not be able to breed when it matures.

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