Channel News Asia – AFP, 07 Aug 2014
BELOGORSK:
A zoo in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea has welcomed its latest arrival - a
"zebroid", or "zonkey", which was born after a lonesome
zebra got intimate with a donkey.
Named
Telegraph by keepers at the Taigan zoo park in southern Crimea, the foal's head
and body are the solid brown of a donkey but his legs have the characteristic
black stripes of a zebra. Born last week, "Telegraph is very popular with
visitors" who can watch him romping around with his mother, according to
zoo director Oleg Zubkov.
Cross-breeding
between zebras and other members of the equine family is not unheard of,
although it is rare that the zebra is the mother. But the breeding of zonkeys
or other hybrids is normally frowned upon by the zoo community.
"Such
things don't happen in civilised zoos, but can occur at private zoos or on
farms," said Anna Kachurovskaya, a spokeswoman for Moscow Zoo. "This
sort of marketing is not justified or scientific ... zoos are for preserving
wild species, that is one of their most important goals."
Zubkov said
Telegraph's mother, who had not had a mate for a long time, was lonely and
uncomfortable in her enclosure at the private zoo founded two years ago about
30 kilometres (20 miles) from Crimea's main city Simferopol. "So on the
advice of a zoologist we moved her in with several other hooved animals and she
really liked the donkey. As a result of their affection for one another we've
gotten Telegraph," Zubkov said in an email to AFP.
Telegraph
was named after a local newspaper which recently celebrated its fifth
anniversary.
Russia
seized the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March in a move hotly contested by
Kiev and the international community.
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