A zoo in Cairo has come under fire for trying to deceive visitors by painting a donkey black and white to make it look like a zebra.

The bizarre creature was spotted by student Mahmoud A.Sarhani who was visiting the recently opened animal sanctuary at the International Garden municipal park.

He shared a picture of the 'zebra' on Facebook and it went viral.

Mr Sarhani, can be seen posing with the donkey with a wry grin on his face, maybe already knowing, that all is not what it seems.

Student Mahmoud A.Sarhani posing with a wry grin next to a sleep zebra, that actually turned out to be a painted donkey

The smudged paint work on the donkey can clearly be seen behind the low brown fencing

Despite overwhelming evidence, Mohamed Sultan, the director of International Gardens Park, has denied the zebra (pictured) is a donkey

On closer inspection of the ass, you can note a few things, firstly the long floppy ears which bear more resemblance to that of a donkey's ears than the more rounded satellite dish-style ears of a zebra.

Secondly, a slight tuft of jet black hair on the donkey, rather than the larger shaggier mane a zebra usually has on the nape of its neck.

And thirdly, even a rudimentary glance upon the animal would tell you the stripes look very strange and smudged on the face, not like the majestic zebra we all know and love.

The majestic zebra in its natural habitat, with a number of features you clearly do you see in the picture of the painted donkey

A number of vets within the country were quick to confirm that the animal was indeed a donkey.

But despite overwhelming evidence, Mohamed Sultan, the director of International Gardens Park, has denied it is an imposter.

This is not the first time a zoo has painted donkeys to resemble zebras.

A zoo is Gaza painted two white donkeys to look like zebras in 2009.

The owner of the zoo justified the paint adorned animals by saying it would have cost large sums of money to smuggle the animals into Gaza due to Israeli restrictions on the importing of live animals.

In another case of animal trickery, a zoo in China annoyed visitors by trying to pass off a hairy dog as a lion in 2013.

When a visited went to the cage of the 'lion' at the zoo in Louhe, a city in Henan, they heard a loud bark.

It turns out the 'lion' was a hairy Tibetan mastiff.