Zoo denies painting donkey black and white to pass it off as a zebra

There are smudges on the animal’s face

A zoo in Egypt has denied an animal displayed as a zebra is actually just a donkey painted white with black stripes, after photos of it appeared online. A photo of the alleged zebra was posted by Student Mahmoud Sarhan, after he snapped it at the International Garden municipal park in Cairo. Sarhan said that two animals were in the enclosure, and they both appeared to have been painted. https://twitter.com/mahmoud__sarhan/status/1021379624046129152 Zoo director Mohamed Sultan told local radio station Nogoum FM that the zebra was not a fake. However, a vet recruited by local news group Extranews.tv said that a real zebra’s nose is black, and that their stripes are more consistent and parallel than the one on display in the photograph. https://twitter.com/amangirg/status/1022564431811756033 There also appear to be paint smudges on the animal's face. This is not the first time a zoo has reportedly tried to pull this trick – a zoo in Gaza tried to fool visitors by dyeing two donkeys to look like zebras in 2009. And in 2013, a Chinese zoo had a mastiff dog labelled as a Tibetan lion.