Circulating since: April 2013
Status: Real image, color-enhanced (see details below)
Example caption:
As posted on Facebook, April 19, 2013:
Meet Zoe! Born in Hawaii, is one of very few 'Golden' Zebras known in existence. Beautiful right?
Analysis: This is an actual photograph that has been digitally manipulated — by whom, we don't know — to exaggerate her unusual gold coloring.
Zoe the zebra is real, but sans color enhancement her stripes look more beige than golden, and her eyes, though bright blue, don't have the preternatural glow seen above (view original image here, and another here).
According to her caretakers at Three Ring Ranch Exotic Animal Sanctuary in Hawaii, Zoe was born with a condition known as amelanosis, a melanin pigment deficiency, and is indeed extremely rare.
More critters of a different color:
• Black Lion
• Rainbow Owl
• Black Fawn
• Albino Fawn
• Puppy with a Heart
• Calico Buck
Sources and further reading:
Meet Zoe - The Rare Golden Zebra
SGBrown on HubPages.com, 30 November 2012
Zoe the White Zebra
Three Ring Ranch Exotic Animal Sanctuary, 16 February 2013
Extremely Rare White Zebra
BuzzFeed, 22 May 2012
Video: Zoe the White Zebra
YouTube, 26 December 2009
Last updated 05/09/13