Dream Big: Zoo Passes Off Donkeys As Zebras

“A” for effort? A zoo in Egypt has been accused of painting two donkeys to look like zebras and pass them off as the real thing.

This is a zebra:

Wikimedia Commons/Moongateclimber/CC

This is… probably a donkey:

Mahmoud A. Sarhan

Mahmoud Sarhan was visiting the International Garden municipal park in Cairo, Egypt when he noticed that the “zebras” didn’t look quite right: the distinctive black and white lines were smudged and irregular, the muzzle wasn’t black like a normal zebra and the ears… those ears.

Experts quickly weighed in as the photo went viral to establish that Sarhan was correct — these were not zebras, but donkeys painted to look like zebras. Now, other zoos have done the same thing — a zoo in Gaza openly dyed two donkeys to look like zebras when blockades prevented real zebras from being imported into the country.

But here’s the thing — the Gaza zoo owned up right off the bat to its painted donkeys. The entire stunt was to keep the kids entertained. This zoo in Cairo has gone on the record stating that these are in fact zebras.

Well, as they say, dream big. If every horse dreams of being a unicorn, perhaps every donkey dreams of being a zebra. Fraud or no fraud, these donkeys are living the dream.

Go riding.

[Egypt zoo accused of painting donkey to look like zebra]