About CoaStable's Program
Our Zebra, Zola - the dam of Zany, Zen, and Zing - was born late at night or early morning, June 14 or 15, 2010, near Dallas, TX. CoaStable brought her to her permanent home in Florida at the age of 4 weeks. Zola, Zany, and her gelded (neutered) minidonkey companion, Pixster, love to graze and migrate between their home pasture and stalls to two adjacent pastures. They are connected by our specially constructed zebra path. On weekends, they are joined by our retired racehorse, Fortune Coast.
What CoaStable has successfully accomplished is to breed Zola to miniature donkeys instead of full-sized donkeys. The first result, after a 13 month uneventful pregnancy, was Zany, a playful male born on May 30, 2016. Zola was not bred again until 2018 in order to observe and learn more about developing minizonkeys. After a 12 month-plus pregnancy, Zola delivered Zen on September 30, 2019.
Zola was not bred again until the spring of 2022. After a 13 month gestation, Zing was born on July 1, 2023.
The sires are Jack, a white miniature donkey, and his full younger brother (by a year), Dom. They are virtually identical except that Dom has a curly forelock and Jack's is relatively straight. They are constantly playing with each other and are virtually inseparable together in their own paddock and stalls.
Our unique minizonkeys, Zany, Zen, and Zing can also be called other terms that are used to describe zebra/donkey hybrids - zebroid, zedonk, zebronkey, zebrinny, zebrula, zebrass, or zebradonk. Inasmuch as miniature zonkeys are rare, there are no names yet developed for them. Therefore, we refer to them as a miniature zonkeys.
What makes our miniature zonkeys so noteworthy are two factors: first, generally such hybrids are produced by a male zebra and female donkey. Previously, it was believed that because of a discrepancy in the chromosomes between female zebras and miniature donkeys, it would not be possible for a zebra to conceive. Secondly, there are virtually no miniature zonkeys produced in the world. African wild asses, that are nearly extinct, can be confused with minizonkeys. Those animals can be found in various zoos around the world.
