Zonkey, Zebra Donkey Hybrid

Today, various zebroids are bred as riding and draft animals, and as curiosities in circuses and smaller zoos. Zorses are bred in Africa and used for trekking on Mount Kenya; the zebra parent gives resistance to the nagana pest disease. A zorse (more accurately a zony) was born at Eden Ostrich World, Cumbria, England in 2001 after a zebra was left in a field with a Shetland pony. It was referred to as a Zetland. Usually, a zebra stallion is paired with a horse mare or donkey mare, but in 2005, a Burchell's zebra named Allison produced a zonkey called Alex sired by a donkey at Highland plantation in the parish of Saint Thomas, Barbados. Alex, born 21 April 2005, is apparently the first zonkey in Barbados. In 2007, a stallion, Ulysses, and a zebra mare, Eclipse, produced a zebroid named Eclyse, displaying an unusually patchy color coating. The Wild Animal Safari in Springfield, Missouri, and its sister location in Pine Mountain, Georgia, have several zedonks as of 31 March 2010. In July 2010, a zedonk was born at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Dahlonega, Georgia. Another zebra–donkey hybrid, like the Barbados zonkey sired by a donkey, was born 3 July 2011 in Haicang Safari Park, Haicang, Xiamen, China. A Zonkey, Ippo was born 21 July 2013 in an animal reserve, Florence, Italy.
Popular culture
Zorses have appeared in several TV shows and movies. In the Viva La Bam episode "Groundhogs Day" in the final race, Brandon Dicamillo's sled is a zorse. It was colored pink, blue, purple and red and on the 'uncommentary' on the DVD seasons of Viva La Bam, Tim Glomb says "If you send me a list of all the episodes where the zorse is I'll give you a dollar". Also, the 2007 movie I'm Reed Fish features a zorse named Zabrina. In the movie Racing Stripes, an animated zorse appears in the alternate ending. It is the son of Stripes (a zebra) and Sandy, a grey Arabian mare. Zorses have also appeared in books. They are briefly mentioned several times in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels. Sutton Coleman wrote a sonnet about zorses and published it in his 2007 book, Ligers, Tigons, and Zorses, Oh My! In Roald Dahl's book Going Solo, he and several other characters speculate on how nice it would be to own a zorse, although they admit it would be difficult to train. The video game Red Dead Redemption has the "Zebra Donkey" available as a multiplayer mount.