The transient optical absorption spectra and their decay kinetics have been investigated by time-resolved absorption spectroscopy technique in Zn-doped BeO crystals. Comparing transient optical absorption properties of self-trapped excitons (STEs) and Zn-impurity-trapped excitons we have made conclusions about the similarity of their hole components and distinctive peculiarities of forbidden optical transitions in their electron components. The metastable optical absorption of Zn+-centers has been first found. It is shown that the Zn-impurity-trapped exciton formation occurs at the hole stages of recombination thermotunnel processes with the participation of electron Zn+-centers. It is found that high probability of electron and hole center recombination formed in BeO-Zn crystals by electron pulses may be related to a high degree of their space correlation.