[UM-Bot]

It's male. But what is it? A zonkey? A deebra? That's the debate in Barbados since a zebra gave birth to a foal sired by a donkey.Alex was born April 21, a milk-chocolate brown creature with the black stripes of a zebra on his ears and legs.

His face looks more like a horse, with a distinctive black "V" patch on the forehead."It's really funny and a little bit freaky," said Natalie Harvey, a 29-year-old waitress.

View: Full Article | Source: cox.net

[Shanoa]

Heh, cute^^

I also remember seeing an article in a magazine about a Zedonk, which was also a donkey/zebra hybrid. Unfortunatly it was sterile, but it was such an amazing looking animal!

[merlinhoot]

Here is a story about a dolphin-whale hybrid at Sea Life Park Hawaii
[attachmentid=14298]
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7508288/



HONOLULU - The world's only known whale-dolphin mix has given birth to a playful female calf, officials at Sea Life Park Hawaii said Thursday.

advertisement
The calf was born on Dec. 23 to Kekaimalu, a mix of a false killer whale and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Park officials said they waited to announce the birth until now because of recent changes in ownership and operations at the park.

The young as-yet unnamed wholphin is one-fourth false killer whale and three-fourths Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Her slick skin is an even blend of a dolphin's light gray and the black coloring of a false killer whale.

The calf still depends fully on her mother's milk, but sometimes snatches frozen capelin from the hands of trainers, then toys with the sardine-like fish.

She is jumbo-sized compared to purebred dolphins, and is already the size of a one-year-old bottlenose.


INTERACTIVE
Launch

"Mother and calf are doing very well," said Dr. Renato Lenzi, general manager of Sea Life Park by Dolphin Discovery. "We are monitoring them very closely to ensure the best care for them."

Although false killer whales and Atlantic bottlenose dolphins are different species, they are classified within the same family by scientists.

"They are not that far apart in terms of taxonomy," said Louis Herman, a leading expert in the study of marine mammals.

There have been reports of wholphins in the wild, he said.

Kekaimalu, whose name means "from the peaceful ocean," was born 19 years ago after a surprise coupling between a 14-foot, 2,000-pound false killer whale and a 6- foot, 400-pound dolphin. The animals were the leads in the park's popular tourist water show, featured in the Adam Sandler movie "50 First Dates."

RELATED STORY

Whale still hanging out on Delaware River

Kekaimalu has given birth to two other calves. One lived for nine years and the other, born when Kekaimalu was very young, died a few days after birth.

Park researchers suspect the wholphin's father is an 8-foot long Atlantic bottlenose dolphin named Mikioi.

"He seems to be totally oblivious to this happening," Lenzi said.

False killer whales do not closely resemble killer whales. They grow to 20 feet, weigh up to two tons and have a tapering, rounded snout that overhangs their toothed jaw.

Atlantic bottlenose dolphins reach a maximum size of 12 feet and can weigh up to 700 pounds.

Sea Life Park officials said they hope to decide on a name for the baby wholphin soon and move her to a large display tank in a few months.

Attached File(s)

•  dolphin.gif (3.36K)
  Number of downloads: 52

[MadEyePixie]

Ranchers hope Allison will eventually mate with George, who is now healthy

Will the baby be a full out zebra though? With dogs, if you breed a purebred with a mutt, the puppies are mixed, but then if you breed the purebred after that with another purebred, the puppies still arent purebred. So would the donkey have ruined the chances of Allison's and George's baby being full zebra?

[2PAC4LIFE]

Whatever they plan on calling it it's cute!

[Walken]

Lol, Zonkey is such a cool name.... Yup.

[Panthera leo atrox]

Neat. I've only ever so far seen these hybrids from the male zebra/female horse/donky combination, so this is a bit different.

With dogs, if you breed a purebred with a mutt, the puppies are mixed, but then if you breed the purebred after that with another purebred, the puppies still arent purebred. So would the donkey have ruined the chances of Allison's and George's baby being full zebra?

If true, this would only be because dogs have more then one young at a time. Since the zebra only had one foal, that won't be an issue unless the next time it breeds it breeds with the donkey and the other zebra and has one zebra and one hybrid.

[_Nyx_]

Zonkey....how precious is that? Cute little bugger! Nature ceases to amaze.

[AztecInca]

It is indeed very cute and I agree Zonkey is an awesome name!

[Amalgamut]

They should clone a cow and a dog, and call it a "Cog."

[Ashley-Star*Child]

Another hybrid. Cute. Yea Zonkey sounds better than Deebra (or would that be Debra....like the name? lol).

[AutumnDragon]

they should make a zebre & a giraffe mate. zeraffe or gibre


itll come out looking kinda like this

[JennRose]

They've already got an animal that looks like a giraffe/zebra mix. The okapi!

[101]

I love it. It is so cute. I want one. Can I get one, please.

[Undefined_innocence]

Awww... Hoiw adorable. I wonder how big it will get?
And i think Zonkey soungds much better then Deebra. Seeing as how the mother was the Zebra, in my opinion, it should start with a Z.