- Zony
A zony is the offspring of a
zebra stallion and apony mare. Medium size pony mares are preferred in order to produce riding zonies, but zebras have been crossed with smaller pony breeds such as theShetland resulting in so-called "Zetlands". It is azebroid : this term refers to any hybrid equine with zebra ancestry. [cite journal|title=Crisis-hit farm welcomes its gift forse|journal=Guardian Unlimited|date= Jun 27, 2001 |quote=it could be a zorse perhaps, a fony or maybe a shebra or a zetland. Whatever its name, the arrival of the strange beast has been hailed as a godsend|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/silly/story/0,,530179,00.html]Cossar Ewart, Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh (1882-1927) and a keen geneticist, crossed a zebra stallion with pony mares in order to investigate the theory of
telegony , or paternal impression. His interest had been provoked by the famous zebra/horse hybrids bred by Lord Morton in 1815 from a chestnut 7/8ths Arabian mare and aquagga stallion.In "
Origin of Species " (1859)Charles Darwin wrote that "In Lord Morton's famous hybrid from a chestnut mare and male quagga, the hybrid, and even the pure offspring subsequently produced from the mare by a black Arabian sire, were much more plainly barred across the legs than is even the pure quagga."During the South African War, the
Boer s crossed the Chapman's zebra with the pony, to produce an animal for transport work, chiefly for hauling guns. A specimen was captured by British forces and presented toKing Edward VII byLord Kitchener , and was photographed byW S Berridge . ["Wonders of Animal Life", edited by J A Hammerton (1930)]Similar experiments had been carried out in the United States by mating a mare with a zebra stallion. The experiments were reported in "Genetics in Relation to Agriculture" by E B Babcock and RE Clausen. They were also reported in "The Science of Life" by H G Wells, J Huxley and GP Wells (c. 1929).
References
External links
[http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hybrid-equines.htm Horse/Pony Hybrids]
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