What do you get when you cross a zebra and a donkey? A "zonkey," of course!
Well, that's one common name for the unusual mix.
In a rare birth in Italy, an animal reserve near Florence welcomed a zebra-donkey hybrid to the world last week. Named Ippo, the zonkey looks like a typical donkey, but carries the stripes of a zebra.
Officials said Ippo is in good health, according to local reports. The offspring of a breed of donkey from Amiata and a zebra adopted from a local zoo, the zonkey was not bred intentionally: A determined male zebra scaled a fence to get into a female donkey's enclosure.
However, it seems the unintentional birth is a boon for the small sanctuary, which often takes in animals seized by police.
"Ippo is the only one of his kind in Italy," Serena Aglietti, a member of the family that owns the reserve, told ANSA news service.
While a zebra-donkey hybrid -- also called a "zedonk" or "zebroid" -- is unique, its existence is not that uncommon. In 2010, another zonkey with a zebra father and donkey mother was born at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Georgia.
Interestingly, a cross between a donkey father and zebra mother is referred to as a "donkra." A donkey-zebra hybrid was born at a Chinese zoo in 2011.
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