Zébrâne

The zébrâne (one reads also ass-zebra , donzèbre or donzed ) is the result of the crossing between two species: the Zebra and the ass.

One can meet wild zébrânes in South Africa, where zebras and asses live in close vicinity. Like the Mule S, they are generally sterile because of an odd number of Chromosome S which prevents the Méiose. However, in “origin of the species by way of natural selection” (1859), Charles Darwin brings back the case of a zébrâne having apparently produced a hybrid triple with a mare.

One generally pairs a male zebra with a mare or a she-ass. However, in 2005, with the Barbados, small a zébrâne was born from the union of a zebress of Burchell and of an ass.

The generic name for the crossings between zebras and horses or asses is Zébroïde . The ass is a close relative of the zebra and both belong to the family of the équidé S. the zébrânes are of course very rare.

Genetics

The hybrids not being able to reproduce between them, that does not compromise the concept of species. Such crossings not being possible in nature, one needs an intervention of the man to give birth to the hybrids. Certain parents of hybrids do not even live on the same continent. The équidés asses and wild ones do not have the same number of chromosomes. The ass has sixty two of them, while the zebra has some between thirty-two and forty six, according to the species. In spite of this difference, viable hybrids are born when the genetic combination of the hybrid allows the development of the embryo until the birth. The hybrid then has a number of chromosomes ranging between those of his/her parents. The chromosomal difference makes the hybrid female not very fertile and the sterile male hybrid, because of a phenomenon called rule of Haldane . The difference between the numbers of chromosomes of the two species finds certainly its explanation in the presence of longer chromosomes in the horse, whose individual genetic contents are wholesale that of two chromosomes of the zebra.

The popular rumor wants that only couples where the zebra is the male can produce an hybrid, but she is contradicted by the hybrid of Barbades. Two others “bardots-zebra” were born, but they did not survive until the adulthood. Their scarcity shows that more the small number of chromosomes must be side of the male so that is born a viable hybrid.

The zébrânes are hybrids obtained by pairing two species of a same kind. The offspring present of the features of each parent and varies of which considerably according to the way in which the genes of each relative are expressed or not and interact.

For this reason it is a priori impossible to cross 2 hybrid species such as the zébrâne and the zébrule. However certain researchers as professor Boyer-Chammard harness themselves to prove the opposite.

In captivity

Although the zébrânes are rare, the Zoo S succeeded in producing some. The zoo of Colchester in the Essex declared wrongly, in 1971, to have produced the first zébrâne.

Indeed, in “origin of the species by way of natural selection” (1859), Charles Darwin mentions four illustrations colors of hybrids between ass and zebra, of which the famous crossing operated in 1815 between an ass and a quagga (or couagga). In “the variation of the animals and plants under the action of domestication” (1st ED. 1868, ED. revised 1883), written Darwin “I saw, with the British museum, an hybrid of ass and zebra whose back legs were mottled. ” then “many years ago, I saw with the zoological garden curious hybrid triple, of a mare bay, by an hybrid of a jackass and with a female streaks. ” then he again reports the crossing with a quagga carried out by Lord Moreton. These two writings are former to the declarations of the zoo of Colchester.

Consciously or not, the zoo of Colchester had repeated an experiment carried out by the Boers during the war of Boers (1899 - 1902), when one raised zébroïdes like animals of work. During this old experiment, one crossed zebras of Chapman and Poney S to produce an animal being used for the transport.^{necessary ref.}

A zébrâne is shown and described in Miracles of the animal life (1930) published by J.A. Hammerton. During the same time, one brings back crossings between zebras of Grévy and asses of Somalia.

A programme of breeding in zoo, in 1975, gave place to several hybrids. In the week of Christmas 1975 was born the third zébrâne from the zoo of Colchester, obtained by pairing a she-ass with various zebras. The former attempts to cross zebras with horses or asses had not given the small ones having survived. The goal of the zoo was to create for Africa an animal of work resistant to the diseases. Experts of zoo of Colchester believed that their success was due to the use of an Arab ass (a variety that one had not tried yet to cross) and had good hope which the hybrids would be viable and fertile. A zébrâne is always visible in Colchester, but it is the last which is high there because the policy of the zoo is from now on to prevent the crossings.

The exotic stockbreeders of animals which have zebras raise sometimes zébrânes.

See too

Ass
Mule
Zébrule
Zebra
Zebroïde

External bonds

Young person zébrâne with his/her mother (she-ass)
Photographs of hybrids of mammals of the years 1930, of which a young person zébrule
Photographs of '' Shadow '' the zébrâne, with the zoo of Colchester

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