magiesdream

Near our home is a farm with TWO Zebra/Horses!!! I don't know a lot about this, and am not certain I condone the mixing of these species??? But I did find it interesting to see! One is Brown with the black striping, and the other is Grey with the black striping, and they both have the features of the Zebra! Can anyone tell me more about this unusual breeding? Thanks!

SaddleSore

I personally think that the zebra hybrids are super cute! I love their little stripy colours. Some people call them a zorse but I have heard of Zetlands too (a zebra, Shetland cross), and the female has to be the horse at all times.

These crosses are rare because the two animals have different numbers of chromosomes, and the offspring has an amount somewhere in between. So for the mating to actually work is incredibly hit and miss.

Clover

I have seen photos of these creatures, and I have heard of zonkeys too. They seem to happen accidentally when zebra are housed with other equines in zoo situations.

digit

Wow, interspecies dating! lol. I wonder what would happen if our donkey and one of the mares got it on? I saw a picture of a zebra and horse hybrid, it was supercute.

tikitowel

All zebra crosses are called zebroids in general, and many more colorful combinations related to the specific cross. They are rare but obviously possible, mostly due to the different number of chromosomes.

More info on Zebroids

Rider

From the link given above, I would like to quote the hybrids of zebras:

What would be the difference of a hebra and a zorse? Do you think it will produce the same physical features or different?

magiesdream

Now I want a MUCH closer look at these two!!!! Just to see which they are!!! LOL Maybe one day....they seem to keep them all locked up and as far away from the road and the general public as possible. I guess maybe they had one too many people stopping? My daughter actually did get a good picture of one of them, but we lost it when our old computer crashed.....<sigh>

moski

If you cross breed like this, well I always thought there could be some bad consequences like the offspring would not make it, or would but with serious difficulty, is this not still true?

Timberlake

Crossing different breeds always have a side effect. What might be cute and cuddly might have a downwards effect on the life quality of the animal, the strenght of the genes, or something like that.

Does anyone know if there is any research in to this zebroids?

magiesdream

The only thing that I've "heard" about this is that once you've bred them, one time...you cannot bred the offspring again. Once is it. So there cannot be a long lineage, so to speak. I suppose that makes sense with the chromosome thing.

Unicorn

This is the problem with cross breeding, there will be no purebreds. So you have to have a zebra and a horse just to produce a zebroid. But how do they do the breeding itself, it is through insemination or natural way of reproduction?

postit

The difference between a hebra and a zorse is the sex of the pair. one is with a zebra stallion, the other a mare and the corresponding horse type. Crossbreeding is normally named for the male then the female, hence a zorse is a horse stallion+zebra mare while the hebra is a horse stallion+zebra mare. The donkey stallion+zebra mare doesn't follow this pattern, but I might guess this is due to the awkwardness of debra/donkra as possible typical names.

Clover

When producing gametes, the chromosomes need to line up in pairs. Although the zebroids have all the genes they need to survive, they don't match up enough for meiosis to happen, so their gametes are duds. Basically.

I'm not sure about research into zebroids because they're relatively rare, but there is a lot of research on mules and their fertility. A few female mules have been fertile, but with vrey low conception rates, when mated to either a pure donkey or horse stallion. What's interesting is that the foal resembled a pure horse or donkey too, depending on what the sire was, suggesting that when the chromosomes lined up for meiosis, all the chromosomes from one parent went into the egg.

Horse Fanatic

I have never seen an actual Zebra-Horse Crossbreed in my life, although I have heard of them!

Very fascinating I think. Do you know if any zoo's are known to have them for display at all?

SaddleSore

I am not sure that this was always true though. I was reading something about a type of zebra horse cross that was quite common and is now extinct. If it was just a one off cross then there couldn't be an extinction as there would be no line to become extinct if you get my reasoning.