Two animals from Africa, a critically endangered wild ass and a zebra, have taken up residence together at a Polish zoo and, contrary to the fears of staff, have become inseparable friends.
Filipo the Somali wild ass – a subspecies of the African wild ass, which is an ancestor of the domestic donkey – arrived last year at the zoo in Bydgoszcz after being transferred from another Polish zoo, in Płock, where he was born in 2021.
There he met his new stablemate Adam, a Chapman’s zebra normally native to southern Africa. Although both animals are young males, which can sometimes result in rivalry, it turned out that they get along very well.
“It is a playful kind of friendship,” Dominika Gulda from the zoo told local broadcaster TVP3 Bydgoszcz. “The boys love to make mischief together, they love to play together. Sometimes they have conflicts over who gets to have the ball.”
TVP3 confirms that the ball belongs to Filipo but that Adam – who is “stubborn as a mule” – monopolises the tasty treats given to the pair.
“We were a little bit afraid of this pairing, because such groups of colts, such groups of males, are difficult, and we were afraid that something wouldn’t work here, that there would be conflicts,” Gulda added.
“The animals have settled in with us…Our staff take great care of the animals, they try to work with them,” added Tamara Samsonowicz, director of the zoo.
The Somali wild ass is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on its Red List of Endangered Species. It is estimated that only around 1,000 remain in the wild.
A large black-and-white cat named Gacek has become the top-rated tourist attraction in the Polish city of Szczecin https://t.co/12dtKDye81
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 9, 2023
Main image credit TVP3 Bydgoszcz (screenshot)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
