14 DAY TRIAL // A really rare animal has been born at a zoo in northern Mexico. The unique baby has been dubbed “zonkey” and is the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
Zookeepers at Reynosa zoo in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas were surprised to see that the rare foal, who was born on April 21, had stripy legs and a brown body.
The cute zebra-donkey cross has been named Khumba.
According to the Independent, Khumba's mother is a female zebra called Rayas, while the father is a dwarf, blue-eyed albino donkey named Ignacio, that lives on a nearby farm. They used to meet every afternoon, and they eventually grew fond of each other.
The zoo staff explain that the cross is extremely rare in the animal world, because the zebra and donkey chromosomes are not compatible. That's why they were very surprised when Rayas got pregnant.
The baby zonkey now lives with its mother at the zoo.
Like many other animal hybrids around the world, the zonkey (or zedonk) is a sterile creature, meaning that it cannot produce offspring of its own. The chances of zonkeys occurring in the wild today are very slim. The majority of them are found in zoos around the world and are bred as tourist attractions.
