Egypt’s zoo denies their 'zebra' is a donkey, experts assert it is

CAIRO – 28 July 2018: Cairo's International Garden municipal park, located in Nasr City, has denied painting a donkey with black strips to make it appear like a zebra following a series of images that went viral on social media sites.

Egyptian student Mahmoud Sarhan, 18, was visiting the zoo when he noticed the suspiciously-striped creature. Sahran took photos of the odd-looking zebra and shared them on Facebook and they went viral.


Mahmoud Sarhan said he knew straight away the animal was a donkey -Courtesy to Mahmoud Sarhan Facebook account


Ina clear photo of the animal, it appears that the animal has long floppy ears instead of the more rounded ears of a zebra.

“From the first lookI knew that it was a donkey, not a zebra, as I'm an artist – I know the shape of a donkey and I know the shape of zebras, so it was easy to know,"Sarhan told local news site Extranews.tv.

Though Mohamed Sultan, the zoo’s director, denied that the animal was a donkey, all animal experts asserted that this is not what a zebra looks like.

Officials at Giza Zoo areexpendingthe utmost efforts to upgrade the zoo. The zoo is in full preparation to receive a newborn giraffe in the coming days, giving her the name “Sawsan” in advance.

Mohamed Ragaey, the head of the Central Zoological Department at the Zoo, said that a plan has been implementedto immunize the mother giraffe against viruses and bacteria to protect the baby during delivery, according to local news outlets.

The zoo is feeding the mother giraffe with nutritious meals of fruits, carrots, and leafy greens. The mother giraffe will be provided with special veterinary care throughout the day.

The Giza Zoo is the biggest animal park in the Middle East, and it was opened for the public in 1891 during the rule of Khedive Tawfiq. Many kinds of rare and endangered animals and birds live in the park and have successfully bred there.