By Jerry Tardif
Here's an animal you may not have seen before. It's called a zedonk and is a cross-breed between a zebra and a donkey.
It is also sometimes called a zeedonk, zebronkey, zonkey, zenkey, zebadonk, zebrass, zebroid, deebra, or a Golden Zebra.
When a zebra is crossed with a horse, it's a zorse. Similarly, with a pony, it's a zeony.
Zebras are very social amongst themselves.
But while they have a close resemblance to horses, they have a more naturally aggressive nature toward other species, including humans.
This is due to their need to survive on the African plains, primarily against the big cats.
Zebras are not considered candidates for riding or any other form of human domestication.
At times, their behavior is sometimes characterized as somewhat vicious.
Zedonks, conversely, can be ridden and are more donkey like in temperament, but still have much of a zebra's looks, especially those beautiful stripes.
Though, ze-donk breeders contend that you must work with them frequently to maintain their trust and milder disposition or there is some reversion to a wilder animal, though less so than a purebred zebra.
The character pictured above lives at a horse farm about 40 minutes from my home in Connecticut.
He was the size of a pony when I took this photo, perhaps in the range of 13 hh or so.
You'll notice his conformation is different than a typical horse from his thicker neck and bigger, donkey-like ears to his tail and hindquarters.
Their population in this country is reportedly only in the hundreds at this time, though interest is them growing due to the appeal of their stripes.
Besides being an avid trail rider, Jerry Tardif is a computer consultant and a horse, nature, and landscape photographer in SE Connecticut — see his work at: www.jerrytardif.com.
He is also co-founder and President of QueryHorse, the largest horse search engine on the Internet, at www.queryhorse.com.
Back to Article Index
|
