Zoo in Egypt allegedly passes off donkey as zebra

Did a zoo in Egypt pass off a donkey as zebra by colouring it with dark stripes? After major news outlets reported the story that Cairo's International Garden municipal park may have pulled a fast one on the visitors, the authorities have denied doing such thing.

A student Mahmoud Sarhan had put images of the animal on Facebook after visiting the zoo which went viral on social media. On closer scrutiny, it looked more like a donkey than zebra, especially its ears. It also had black smudges and was relatively of smaller size.  According to reports, Sarhan found two donkeys who were painted as zebras. The zoo staffers had trimmed its mane to make it look like a zebra but unfortunately for them the painted melted off. 

However, Zoo Director has rejected the allegations. He has insisted that the animal is a zebra and not a donkey as people are thinking.  In the past too, such cases have been reported from various parts of the world. A zoo in Gaza painted two donkeys as zebras 8 years ago. A Chinese zoo in 2013 tried to pass off a Tibetan mastiff dog as an African lion.  Increasingly zoo's across the globe are struggling from fund crunch and lack of footfall. Hence they are probably resorting to innovative ways to attract numbers.