Tell your pygmy goat and your teacup pig to hit the road because there's a new rare breed of adorable in town and her name is Ippo. Half zebra, half donkey, Ippo is the interspecies child of the equine world better known as a zonkey.
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Ippo was born this week to a zebra father and a donkey mother at an animal reserve in Florence, Italy. Similar to the conception of a mule, zonkeys, or zedonks as they are also called, are brought into the world through cross-species breeding among horses.
Like mules, zonkeys themselves have very slim chances of reproducing -- many of them are sterile due to the mismatched DNA of their parents. So, much like a limited edition My Little Pony, once they're gone, they're gone.
And while she may be the only zonkey in Italy, Ippo is not the only zedonk in the world. Another zonkey born 3 years ago, lives at Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Georgia. Of course, this still isn't enough for the eccentric and ridiculously wealthy to begin owning them as pets. So for now the dream of riding your very own zonkey around the neighborhood will have to remain a distant one.
Note: this post has been edited from its original version.
