The cute story was about a half-zebra, half-donkey named Ippo. The zonkey is 4 months old and now living at an animal reserve in Florence, Italy. Months ago, a male zebra jumped a fence that divided him from the donkeys on the reserve. He met a female donkey there. And then the rendezvous made the adorable result.
There are a variety of zebroids (a hybrid of zebra and any other member of the horse family) in the world, though Ippo’s case is a rare one. In fact, she is the only zonkey in all of Italy.
Though it is often a successful pregnancy that births a healthy zonkey baby, zebra and donkey matings are few and far between.
Zebroids like Ippo carry traits (physical and personality-wise) from both parents. Based on the handful of zonkeys in the world, these rare creatures tend to have the overall look of a donkey with the striped legs and wild nature of a zebra.
They are also usually infertile due to an odd number of chromosomes disrupting a key process in reproduction. It’s still unclear as to whether Ippo will be able to bear offspring, but she can live a healthy and full life, nonetheless.
What is a Zonkey? “A zonkey is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. Donkeys are closely related to zebras and both animals belong to the horse family. Zonkeys are very rare”. If you’re being picky, then information from a great website, the A-Z of Animals says that it can only really be classed as a Zonkey if it is sired from a male Zebra and a female Donkey. If you have a male Donkey and female Zebra then you end up with a Zebadonk.
Sadly the Zonkey is a sterile creature so it cannot produce offspring of its own. Zonkeys can live in the wild though, although they are very rare and the majority of Zonkeys are found in zoos around the world.
A recent birth in Mexico (April 2014) shows a video of a baby Zonkey. Well worth a watch.
