A new zoo in Cairo’s International Garden municipal park has come under fire for trying to deceive visitors by painting a donkey black and white to make it look like a zebra.
On July 21st, Mahmoud A. Sarhani, a Cairo student who had recently visited the recently opened zoo posted a photo of a strange-looking zebra on his Facebook page. Not only did the animal have usually-long ears, but it also had some strange paint smudges on the side of its head. A closer inspection reveals that this zebra also lacks the characteristic mane of its species, which extends forward past the ears. Apparently, zoo staff painted a common donkey white with black stripes, trimmed its mane to make it look pointy and tried to pass it off as a zebra. Unfortunately, the hot weather caused the paint to smudge which attracted unwanted attention.
