Rare 'zonkey', result of zebra mating with donkey, draws crowds in Italy

A rare "zonkey", the result of Martin the zebra mating with Giada the donkey, is drawing crowds to an exotic-animal shelter in the Italian city of Florence.

Three-month-old Ippo is already a star and the owners of the farm say they have received requests for rights over his image, including one from a soft-toy company and another from Disney to make a cartoon.

"It is very rare that a zebra and a donkey mate and reproduce," Serena Aglietti, the daughter of the shelter's owner, said at the site in central Florence.

The family-run Aglietti farm takes in animals rescued from circuses or owners who treat them badly and houses 170 animals including camels, llamas and Vietnamese pigs.

Aglietti explained that on one balmy night last year, Martin - who was taken away years ago from a zoo where he was being abused - jumped over the fence of his enclosure. The lusty Martin used his snout to lift the latch on a stable door where the donkeys were being kept.

There he mated with Giada, a rare Italian Amiata donkey brought to the clinic to be bred. No one realised what had happened until 12 months later - the length of a donkey pregnancy.

"We were there at the birth. First the black hooves came out, then the striped legs. We were amazed," Aglietti said.