Feral Horses – Stuff You Want To Know
Animals who had domesticated ancestors but were born and live in the wild. These are distinct from wild animals, whose ancestors have never undergone domestication.Several populations of feral horses exist, including those in the western United States and Canada (often called “mustangs”), and in parts of Australia (“brumbies”) and New Zealand (“Kaimanawa horses”).
Isolated feral populations are often named for their geographic location: Namibia has its Namib Desert Horses; the Sorraia lives in Spain and Portugal; Sable Island Horses reside in Nova Scotia, Canada; and New Forest ponies have been part of Hampshire, England for a thousand years.
Studies of feral horses have provided useful insights into the behavior of ancestral wild horses, as well as greater understanding of the instincts and behaviours that drive horses.
Other modern equids
Other members of the horse family include zebras, donkeys, and onagers.
The Donkey, Burro or Domestic Ass, Equus asinus, like the horse, has many breeds. A mule is a hybrid of a male ass (jack) and a mare, and is usually infertile. A hinny is the less common hybrid of a female ass (jenny) and a stallion.
Breeders have also tried crossing various species of zebra with mares or female asses to produce “zebra mules” (zorses, and zonkeys (also called zedonks or zebroids)). This will probably remain a novelty hybrid as these individuals tend to inherit some of the undomesticated nature of their zebra parent, but they may inherit the zebra’s resistance to nagana pest.
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