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The Zonkey & Other Odd Hybrids

Mighty_Emperor

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Baby Zonkey Born In California

Contest To Be Held To Name Zonkey

POSTED: 8:42 am EDT June 23, 2004
UPDATED: 1:18 pm EDT June 23, 2004

What do you get if you breed a zebra and a miniature donkey? The result is a baby zonkey.

A California ranch owner bred the two animals to come up with the unusual four-legged foal.

The unnamed animal has mom's striped legs and ears and dad's grey-brown body.

The ranch owner is planning to hold a contest to name her zonkey.

She says she is pleased with her newest addition.

She also says with a pony and several horses on the ranch, a baby zony or zorse could be next.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/3450567/detail.html

Emps
 
Chester Zoo used to have a "Zebroid" - zebra x horse - it was magic.

Now I read somewhere...goddam, I can't remember my sources...that, cladistically speaking, a horse is a zebra - that is to say, the horse species arises within the four or so zebra species, ie horses are more closely related to a certain kind of zebra than othat zebra is to other zebras...ach, you try explaining it without being able to draw a tree diagram. :(
 
Mule gives birth

Posted on Monday, July 12 @ 19:44:08 CDT BST

Much to the surprise of villagers in Dorikha, Haa, a golden yellow mule gave birth to a black foal on June 7.

Villagers were amazed and the news quickly spread across the neighbouring villages. “I wondered what all the fuss was about?” said a 25-year old woman when she heard about the unusual incident. “Only later did I come to know that the mules are supposed to be sterile.”
Scientifically, of course, mules are sterile. While the phenomenon is well known among most elderly Bhutanese it was a discovery for the younger ones.

Mules are hybrid of male donkeys crossed with female horses and are sterile. When a male horse is crossed with a female donkey the offspring is called a Hinny. But, in Bhutan a general term drel is used for the offspring regardless of the sex of the parents as long as one is horse and the other a donkey.

“Mules are more like fifty-fifty of horse and donkey,” said Dr. Tashi Samdrup of the livestock department in Thimphu. “While the mules are characterised by long ears, narrow body and small hooves of the donkey, speed and muscles are those of the horse, while the head and voice are a blend of parent feature.”

The livestock officer in Haa, Jigme Wangchuk, told Kuensel that such incidents rarely happened in Bhutan. “But it does happen occasionally in other countries.”

Dr. Tashi Samdrup said that female mules were more fertile than the males but a mule giving birth was rare. “It is considered an abnormality,” he said. “Book on mules say that it is impossible. Investigation done in some countries, however, found out that the mules turned out to be donkeys in reality. The chromosomes were found out to be that of donkeys.”

Meanwhile, it is not known whether the Dorikha mule had mated with a donkey, a horse or a mule as it was let loose out in the open most of the time.

Original story
 
I saw a print at the weekend of a Victorian painting of a lion/tiger cross 'family'.

The male lion and female tiger were circus animals. This made their mating more likely than if they were in the wild, especially as lions are African and tigers Asian. ;)
 
although there are a small number of lions native to Asia, the Asiatic lion has a sparse population remaining in India's Gir forest. And there are some at Chester zoo.
 
What happens when you breed 400 pounds of killing machine, with another 400 pounds of killing machine?

Why, you get a 600 pound gentle giant.

Ligers are really cool.
 
Mules are hybrid of male donkeys crossed with female horses and are sterile. When a male horse is crossed with a female donkey the offspring is called a Hinny. But, in Bhutan a general term drel is used for the offspring regardless of the sex of the parents as long as one is horse and the other a donkey.

seems strange that they only have one term for both hybrids, as mules make beasts of burden and hinnies are more or less useless, or so i've been told.
 
The American Donkey & Mule Society has a page about zebra hybrids: click here .

Edited to add: I had no idea that there were so many zebra stallions in captivity (outside of zoos) for people to be breeding their horse, donkey and pony mares to.
 
A much better beast of burden than a zonkey.
 
And someone mentioned a victorian painting of a tiger and lion family

Well, here's a photo from the same area of a tiger mother, lion mother, and hybrid offspring. It's from a circus, too.

Website on all the hybridization that occurs between big cats, with pictures and explanations on why it matters which sex and species each parent is...

http://members.aol.com/jshartwell/hybrid-bigcats.html
 
Ath said:
What happens when you breed 400 pounds of killing machine, with another 400 pounds of killing machine?

Why, you get a 600 pound gentle giant.

Ligers are really cool.

That thing scares the hell outta me.

Is there any laws governing the breeding of creatures which, although technically from the same strand of genetic tree, really don't belong together?

And if anybody starts on about gettin elephants drunk in a South Park kinda way I wont be amused... ;)
 
Now I read somewhere...goddam, I can't remember my sources...that, cladistically speaking, a horse is a zebra - that is to say, the horse species arises within the four or so zebra species, ie horses are more closely related to a certain kind of zebra than othat zebra is to other zebras...ach, you try explaining it without being able to draw a tree diagram.

Couldn't find the original source for this, but I've found the same theory expounded in The New Encyclopedia of the Horse, Dorling Kindersley.

(p.17) "Grevy's zebra is the largest of the group...It was the first to split away from the first single hooved horse...It is classified in the sub-genus Dolichohippus, while the others, which are more closely related to horses and asses, come under the sub-genusHippotigris . The sleeker mountain zebra falls into this latter grouping, along with Burchell's zebra."

So according to this, it's [Grevys[[horses and asses][mountain and Burchills]], so a horse is a zebra, if this theory is right,

Thestral, who loves cladistics.
 
Another zonkey born on Kenya. Much cuter (and authentic) than those ones you used to get charged $1 to have your photo taken with in Tijuana, Mexico.

zonkey.jpg


It's A Zonkey!
Working with wildlife, one learns to expect the unexpected. Even the most seemingly straightforward story can eventually reveal its true stripes and end up surprising us all.
Last May, the SWT/KWS Tsavo Mobile Veterinary Unit received a call from the KWS Community Warden at Mutomo Station. A stray zebra that had ventured out of the Tsavo East National Park and into a community bordering the park. She made herself right at home there, becoming an honorary member of a local woman’s cattle herd. This situation continued for many weeks, until the story was aired on local media, and then our team was asked to help translocate the zebra back to a protected area.
https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/news/updates/zonkey
 
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