Did you know there are standards for show zebras?
No, I’m not making this up. Have a look for yourself.
And special thanks to CyborgSuzy at Hoof & Paw for alerting me to these standards.
Zebras are wild animals that just happen to be easily bred in captivity.
I honestly can’t believe that some people have written show standards for them.
I wonder how long it will be until we have standards for tigers, lions, and various species of deer and antelope.
And as we know, there is a standard for the dingo.
This just sounds wrong to me. Natural selection created the conformation of these wild animals. I don’t in the least think we can write standards that can even remotely mimic this process, but as wild animals become rarer and rarer in the wild, my guess is that we’re not too far away from organized tiger conformation shows.
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Now, believe it or not conformation has played a role in wildlife conservation issues. The best case I can think of is the Mexican wolf. There was strain of captive Mexican wolves that were slated for reintroduction. However, they had very large ears, shorter muzzles, and smaller heads. They were thought to be wolf-hybrids and, thus, were unsuitable for release. They were euthanized.
Now, it was argued that the decades of captivity had totally changed the way these animals looked. Their diets were not the hard fodder that wild wolves eat, and as a result, their jaw bones and muscles changed shape. However, in those days, there were no sophisticated DNA tests to determine whether there was any dog ancestry in the strain, and it was decided that they couldn’t release them.
So conformation is sometimes important in wildlife conservation.
where is the zebra party?
Hmm, the off lead zebra in the photo ( don’t know the technical term as I have never driven a 4 in hand) has very dark legs and head. In today’s world, that particular animal would be nabbed for a quagga reconstructive breeding program.
I fail to understand the purpose of a standard for the dingo as it can’t be owned or even shown, unless it’s a feeble attempt to preserve in print what a dingo is, since in many areas of Down Under, dingoes are interbreeding with contemporary dogs, feral or otherwise, similar to what’s happening to the Simian Wolf in Ethiopia although the former is a ‘dog’ and the latter is not but a separate species in it’s own right. Perhaps the written standards were drawn up before today’s affordble DNA tests?
Quaggas and Burchell’s zebras are the same species (Plains), and they are most easily domesticated of the zebra species.
Here’s the website for the people trying recreate the quagga: http://www.quaggaproject.org/
I thought quaggas and Burchell’s were the same! I didn’t take the time to check it out, so thanks!!!
Actually, they are probably the same subspecies– just different colors.
IMO, the “IZZZA” was started by a breeder (check out their breeders list… only ONE breeder on it) in an attempt at making more $$$ of their weird crosses and registration fees.
Pretty common in the horse world for someone to start a cheesy new registry in attempt to get more money for grade horses and weird crosses (similar to the offbeat dog registries that register weird mixes).
Yeah, I wondered about that site, too.
If you google “zorse” the first breeder website that comes up actually states that they they’re getting out of the zorse business because they’re too unpredictable and aggressive.
Still, the popularity of these hybrids just seems to be going up. A baby zebra just sold at the NW equine expo, I assume to be a stud for hybrids. I’ve been going to the expo for years, and that was the first time I saw a zebra there.
I’ve seen zebras at horse shows. In fact, that’s where I first saw them. I live where you can own ANYTHING so long as it’s not native wildlife or a red fox without a permit.
Now, as per your post, I don’t know if anyone as tried to breed them to be calmer and tamer yet. I do know that Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, kept a band of trained harness zebras: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rothschild,_2nd_Baron_Rothschild
I’ve often though about their stripes. I wonder if it might be trait of neoteny. One of the closest relatives of the horse family are the tapirs. And baby tapirs look like this (this is a baby Brazilian tapir): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00531/Tapir2_531402a.jpg
And this is a baby Malayan: http://www.zooborns.com/.a/6a010535647bf3970b0115720981b7970b-800wi
“I honestly can’t believe that some people have written show standards for them.”
What could go wrong? :)
Sometimes I think the two-legged population has gone into de-evolution. Srsly…