11/21/2023 0 Comments Zebra breeding farmGalton uses the zebra as an example of an unmanageable species, stating that the Dutch Boers repeatedly tried to break zebra to harness. According to the English explorer and polymath Francis Galton (a relative of Charles Darwin), these requirements include displaying a desire for comfort, being easy to tend, being useful and showing a fondness for man. Familiarity with human hunter gatherers may also have fostered a strong avoidance response in the zebra.Īll of this means that zebra are not really “people friendly” and as a species they do not fit the criteria for domestication. They can be savage biters and possess a “ducking” reflex that helps them avoid being caught by lasso. The kick of a zebra can break a lion’s jaw. But to survive in an environment where there is an abundance of large predators including lions, cheetahs and hyenas, the zebra evolved into a particularly alert, responsive animal that flees in the face of danger but also possesses a powerful response if captured. All equids are herbivorous prey species with a well developed “flight or fight” response. Unlike the Equids of Eurasia, however, the zebra population of Africa was relatively secure and particularly well adapted to its environment. So, if horses were so important to human civilisation, why not the zebra? Humans originated in Africa so it seems strange that they missed exploiting such a potentially useful animal living on the same continent. In Mongolia, the land of the horse, the legendary 13th-century warlord Genghis Khan used the animal to establish a domain that extended from Hungary to Korea, and from Siberia to Tibet: an Asian empire won on horseback. Horses were initially kept as a food animal, but their full potential as a means of transport, communication and warfare resulted in them being of increasing importance in the development of human civilisation. Recent research also shows the domestic herds were repeatedly restocked with wild horses as they spread across Eurasia. The wild ancestor of today’s domestic horses (Equus ferus) was first domesticated in the western Eurasian Steppe, an area where the earliest archaeological evidence for domesticated horses was found. Although horses, assess and zebra all evolved from a common ancestor ( Hyracotherium) which lived in Europe and North America around 55m years ago, divergence meant that the zebra and donkey are more closely related to each other than either is to the horse. The manes and tails of zebra are in fact more similar to those of asses (donkeys) and reflect the evolutionary history of the genus Equus. The 2005 movie, Racing Stripes, was the story of a young zebra who wanted to compete in horse races – although the filmmakers were forced to use a horse stand-in for some scenes (the tail gives it away). So how did the zebra avoid the load bearing, farm working, fence jumping fate of its cousins? And which animal ended up with the better deal?īecause of their obvious similarity to horses – and for novelty value – attempts have been made by humans to ride and race zebra. ![]() Yet underlying differences in behaviour have meant that while horses and donkeys have been successfully domesticated, the zebra remains predominantly wild. In many ways, zebra appear very like horses (or ponies, given their size).
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