Penza, 26 June 2014. PenzaNews. Penza zoo staff put into zebra Martin’s cage two donkey females.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

According to zoologists, this has not gone unnoticed by the animal — Martin immediately paid attention to the donkeys and began to prance in front of them.

“The decision to put the animals together was made in order to make sure the zebra did not lose its reproductive ability,” the press service of the menagerie said.

The zoo said that because of unscrupulous contractors, zebra’s cage is still not ready, however, by the employees of zoo reconstructed old stables, in which Martin wintered and feels good.

“Recently, however, experts have noticed that Martin looks in neighboring cages for animals, which means that the zebra is lonely. Meanwhile, the search for a female for our male continues, and there is an agreement to reserve a female zebra for Penza zoo. But up to now, aviaries of “Africa” exposition are not ready, and the available space does not allow maintaining two animals,” the press service of the zoo explained.

Experts have begun to seek for the way out, and found information about zebroids on the Internet.

“Zebroid is a hybrid of zebra, horse, pony and donkey. Typically, for these hybrids they use zebra males and females of other horses. Hybrid of zebra and donkey is called zedonk or zonk. This animal is very rare in the wild, and the number of zedonks contained in various zoos and reserves of the world is quite small. Currently there are four zebroids in the world — one in Russia,” the press service informed.

The zoo said that in any case, the main task of placing the animals together zebra’s stimulation, not interbreeding.