And, how close(genetically) are they to domestic horses? I once read that a Lord Rothchild (English banker) once had a pair of tamed zebras to pull his coach…is this true?
If horses and zebras can interbreed, what do the hybrids look like?
They can and have been tamed but from what I have read, their dispositions don’t lend to domestication very readily. They’re nasty little animals.
And after a little bit of googling, it seems that the equus genus (which includes all horses, zebras, and donkeys) became distinct about four million years ago meaning that the further differentiation between its seven species is even more recent so I am assuming they’re very closely related since humans and chimpanzees split off from gorillas one to two millions years before that and are still 98% identical.
This is only supposition though.
If you have access to a library (or a bookstore) have a look at Chapter 9 from Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel.” In that chapter Diamond discusses six reasons why most big wild mammal species were never domesticated, and references Zebras under reason four, Nasty Disposition.
[QUOTE]
Of the 14 large (over 100 lb) successful domesticated animal species in the world
[ul][li]13 are from Eurasia,[/li][li]one from South America.[/li][li]Why the huge disparity?[/li][li]Why did Africa have none?[/ul][/li]
Of 148 large herbivorous or omnivorous species in the world
[ul][li]Eurasia had 72[/li][li]Africa 51[/li][li]Americas 24[/li][li]Australia 1[/ul][/li]
Not a Cultural Issue
[ul][li]When the big 5 Eurasian domesticates (Cow, sheep goat, pig, horse) were introduced into Africa and the Americas they were readily adopted.[/li][li]All peoples have experience taming wild animals, keeping pets. But not all tamed animals can become domesticated.[/li][li]All major animal domestication occurred between 8,500-2,500 B.C. with almost none since then.[/li][li]Those of the 148 possible species capable of being domesticated were domesticated.[/li][li]Some species like cows, dogs, pigs independently domesticated in different parts of the world. These animals were well suited for domestication.[/li][li]Modern attempts to domesticate eland, elk, moose, musk ox, zebra, American Bison are only marginally successful.[/ul][/li]
Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?
[ol][li]Diet too finicky (ex: koala)[/li][li]Growth rate too slow (ex: elephants, gorillas)[/li][li]Captive Breeding. Some animals have elaborate mating rituals that they won’t do in captivity (ex: cheetah, vicuna)[/li][li]Nasty Disposition. (ex: grizzly bear, African buffalo, onager, zebra, hippo, elk)[/li][li]Tendency to panic. (ex: deer, antelope, gazelles).[/li][li]Social structure.[/ol][/li]
[ul][li]Need animals that live in herds with hierarchy and have overlapping ranges[/li][li]Humans can then take over dominance position.[/li][li]Solitary animals hard to domesticate (only cats and ferrets have been).[/li][li]Territorial animals hard to pen up with others (ex: Africa antelope, rhino).[/li][li]Animals without dominance structure are hard to herd (ex: deer, antelope.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
Thanks for the info, AESIRON. Red deer have been farm-raised for years in Scotland and New Zealand. Is it true that even after all of hese generations in captivity, these animals show no signs of domestication?
I’ve always been fascinated by dogs…I wonder (as in THE CALL OF THE WILD) if the wolf lurking inside my friendly springer spaniel, is just under the surface, waiting to re-emerge.
Of course, “Buddy” spends a lot of his time on my sofa, with me scratching his ears…I don’t think he really wants to go out and chase game animals!
The domestication of dogs is a mystery shielded in the mists of times long ago. We have no real information as to where or when it happened.
I understand some sort of elk is now being domesticated in the northern reaches of Russia.
you mean Racing Stripes is not true? 
There was a very famous attempt when Cecil sub[/sub] was exploring present-day Zimbabwe.
He tried to get zebras to pull the carts, as the horses died of some kind of disease.
It didn’t work out very well. As has been pointed out above, zebras aren’t very friendly.
I have seen pictures of this attempt, but I can’t remember where. Probably at a museum in Harare.
They died of Sleeping Sickness of course. This was before the Vilderpest (a sort of veterinary smallpox) zapped the population of local animals. With the resivoir of sickness depleted, European stock could make inroads for the first time.
By I am pontificating.
Again.
Although it adds almost nothing to the value of this thread, I feel compelled to point out that I got to pet a zebra once. This happened at some drive-through zoo that my parents took me to somewhere in the Midwest during a long-ago family vacation.
Aesiron’s fascinating post claims that elephants have not been domesticated. That surprises me, having seen films of Indian elephants being ridden, hauling cargo and clearing timber with their trunks at the command of human handlers. What am I missing? And what does an elephant’s growth rate being “too slow” (the reason given in Aesiron’s post) have to do with it?
This surprised me too when I learned of it from Diamond’d book, apparently all working elephants have been wild caught, as youngsters, then tamed. From wildlife programmes I know that an elephant takes around 15 years to mature, I guess breeding them isn’t an economic proposition.
Elephants can be tamed, but not easily domesticated because they are a bitch to breed in captivity and enormous investment to nurture a baby elephant along for years, eating an enormous amount of fodder, until they are large enough to work. Since time immemorial working elephants have been gathered from the wild, not bred.
- Tamerlane
I used to live near a zorse ranch. Their zebra stallion was kept away from people, but then I’ve seen a lot of horse stallions that you don’t want visitors touching.
The offspring of their zebra stallion and their horse mares (the zorses) didn’t seem to be any more ornery or feisty than mules, which can be perfectly good domestic critters if they’re trained properly.
I remember this topic being discussed before, because I still use a comment that was in that other thread: zebras aren’t domesticated because no matter how many generations you breed and train in captivity, they remain “vicious stripey bastards.” 
There is a small population of breeders/showers of zebras and hybrids. The most famous show zebra was Barcode (died… mmmm… about a year ago), owned by Barred M Ranch. Pictures here and here. General consensus appears to be that you want the zebra really, really young if you’re going to attempt any type of training- anything after 2 or 3, and you have little hope of being successful with them. John Lyons, at one of his demonstrations, was quoted as saying that “zebroids are, in general, not good pets/riding animals, but wild or near wild animals, and not trustworthy no matter how carefully trained.” That’s a cross… imagine the Real Thing.
scm1001: The animal in “Racing Stripes” is an actual zebra (well, several actual zebras). A poster on a horse BB that I read is good friends with the former owner of the primary zebra (due to import/export laws, the zebra was purchased by the film company and now has to remain in Africa), and there were multiple articles on the former owner and his training site (north of Ocala).
I have had some encounters with Zebras and would agree that they are nasty. I met a woman zoo worker who nearly lost a breast to a zebra bite. Ouch.
A guy in my cubicle bay has an interesting old news clipping…apparantly in the 1890s there was a London guy who owned several exotics, and he regularly took out a carriage with 4 zebras for a trot around Hyde Park. It is a really cool photograph of 4 folks in formal attire on a carraige, with 4 zebras. The cite on the article says that it is from the Aug 1940 issue of Animal & Zoo. Wish I could scan and post it, it is very interesting.
The article mentions that the zebras were very well behaved, but the owner eventually stopped his carriage rides because the other folks’ carraige horses would get nervous and skittish around the zebras.
Umm, GargoyleWB, did you read the OP closely? It seems you’ve helped to answer his/her question, but do not realize you did so.