A Kenyan animal rescue group were pleasantly surprised to discover that one of the zebras living in a wildlife park has given birth to a zonkey!
'What on earth is a zonkey?' - I hear you ask.
Well, firstly, it's adorable. Secondly, it's a fairly rare and unusual result of mating between a zebra and a donkey, but you'd already worked that out, hadn't you?
Basically, the staff at Chyulu Hills National Park in Kenya recently discovered that one of their zebras was accompanied by a particularly interesting looking foal.
She has brown fur, like a donkey, but stripes on her legs like a zebra. Animal rescuers fro the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust came in to examine the young foal and discovered it to be a zebra-donkey hybrid.
In a news release last Wednesday, the rescue trust wrote: "Working with wildlife, one learns to expect the unexpected.
"Even the most seemingly straightforward story can eventually reveal its true stripes and end up surprising us all."
So, how does this sort of thing end up happening? No, we're not going to get into the finer details of how baby zonkeys are made - you can ask your mum and dad about that - but there is a reason these sorts of births are rare.
It's thought the mummy zebra wandered out of the park that she calls home and subsequently 'made herself at home' with a local cattle herd.
There, it would seem, she met a donkey and consummated their relationship before the folks from the wildlife park came to get her.
The news release continued that she had 'obviously become acquainted with an amorous donkey' during her time away.
A holiday romance, if you will.
The thing is, zebra pregnancies last for 12 months, so it would be a while before they'd have any idea of what was going on. That's why we're only realising about the birth of the miracle zonkey now.
So, according to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust: "The zonkey combines the sturdy body of its donkey sire and the striped legs of its zebra mother, which makes for a striking creature.
"While it should otherwise lead a normal life, zonkeys are mules, meaning that it will be unable to successfully breed once it reaches maturity."
Well, that's mostly good news, at least.
There's more good news, too. According to the park, both mother and baby are 'thriving' in their home.
Featured Image Credit: Sheldrick Wildlife Trust