Another rare ‘blonde’ zebra with colour similar to donkeys spotted in Kenya [Photos]

The Maasai Mara in Kenya has, over the past couple of weeks, been on the global spotlight thanks to the recent sightings of rare and unusual patterned foals (baby zebras).

Three weeks after a rare, black and dotted foal was spotted in the same park, another rare one has also made the news. This time around, the abnormal patterned foal that was captured has a striped neck, head, legs and tail. The rest of its body is, however, brown/golden, similar to that of donkeys.

According to Daily Nation, the unusual foal, which was spotted by a Mara West camp employee, Mr John Manie Kipas, piqued the interest of tour guides and tourists.

“I was the first who spotted the little baby zebra, and I have given it my second name ‘Manie’,” Kipas said.

Kipas set his eyes on the foal together with a group of other zebras and wildebeest that were migrating to the Serengeti.

“It was a normal morning game drive and that is when we spotted the rare-coloured foal. At some point, I could not believe my eyes. I clicked my camera and got some pictures of it. It looks more like a donkey than a zebra,” Kipas told Daily Nation.

A few weeks back, Face2Face Africa reported on the sighting of a rare black-spotted foal in Maasai Mara. The foal was spotted and photographed by Mr. Anthony Tira, a renowned tour guide-cum photographer from the Matira Bush Camp, at the famous game reserve.

According to the Maasai Mara Kenya Park, Tira came across the incredibly “blacker” newly born zebra, photographed it and posted it on the camp’s Facebook page, attracting a lot of social media buzz. He named the foal by his surname, Tira.

“At first I thought it was a zebra that had been captured and painted or marked for purposes of migration. I was confused when I first saw it,” Tira told Kenya’s The Nation.

Tira explained that he had to take a closer examination, only realizing after that he was seeing a zebra with melanin disorder.

He explained that the zebra was hardly a week old and appeared weak and very different from the others, for it had no stripes but was stuck close to a female adult zebra, probably its mother.

As the news of the new and rare zebra spread across the reserve, tour drivers and photographers hurriedly rerouted to the lookout area, hoping to also catch a glimpse of the animal that gave people a lot to talk about for days in the Mara area.

The Nation reports that this caused a stampede at the reserve as tourists continued to capture extra clips of the rare animal, topping their holiday experiences.