The second donkey in British history was born on October 2 at Christine Turnet’s farm in South Barrow, Somerset. The cub was long-awaited, the owner specially invested a lot of money for the zebra, which she added to her donkeys in the hope that instincts and hormones will do their job. And so it happened, it turned out to be extremely successful – there are not so many donkeys with this particular color.
As the owner of Zippy, Christine, says, she always wanted a personal donkey, but for a long time did not dare to take it up. A ready, adult or a cub, costs a lot of money and in any case it will be a stranger, because she wanted to raise it herself, with her own hands since childhood. But getting a donkey is still a risk, nevertheless, zebras and donkeys are only conditionally related species and a lot of factors must be taken into account before forced crossing. Therefore, Christine chose a different path – she bought a young zebra for 10,000 euros and settled in a large bar with donkeys. There are 22 hectares of pasture which was enough space for solitude and games.
Christine deliberately distanced herself from the process, she did not know about the pregnancy of the zebra, and one morning she opened her bedroom windows, which overlook the farm, and the creature was sitting right there and looking at her. When she saw striped legs and funny erect ears, she immediately put on her coat and rushed to the farm. Yeah, she ran away – the donkey is a half-wild animal and little Zippie met the woman with a mixture of fear and aggression. But then he calmed down and allowed the owner to clean him.
Now a little grown up donkey Zippie walks everywhere with his mother-zebra and avoids other donkeys. Christine hopes that this will pass when he grows up. She has big plans for Zippie – not to do anything, but just watch how the donkey will live with the donkeys, what offspring he will have and what will happen in general.
Do you think that the owners’s plans connected with the donkey will be fulfilled?
