DHAKA: An act of love between Martin the zebra and Giada the donkey in the romantic Italian city of Florence has produced a rare ‘zonkey’ baby that is drawing crowds to an exotic animal shelter.

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, daughter of the shelter’s owner, said at the site in central Florence, near the city’s landmark monuments.

The family-run Aglietti farm takes in animals rescued from circuses or owners who treat them badly and houses a motley array of 170 animals, including camels, lamas 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 consummated his love for Giada, a rare Italian Amiata donkey brought to the clinic to be bred.

BDST: 1501 HRS, NOV 02, 2013
RoR/RIS