<BIG>Greetings Folks,</BIG> <BIG></BIG> <BIG>Meet Eclyse, the result of a relationship between a zebra and a horse, who's celebrating its first birthday at Safariepark Zoo in the city of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock. </BIG> <BIG> The distinctive 'zorse' - which could just as accurately have been christened a 'hebra' - has fast become one of the zoo's most popular attractions, capturing the imagination of park visitors. While most zebra-horse cross-breeds sport stripes across their entire body, Eclyse only has two such patches on its face and rear. </BIG> It looks as if someone tried to give a zebra a respray. . . then ran out of white paint halfway through the job. But in reality there is no artificial coloring on display here. This amazing but natural coat belongs to Eclyse the zorse. Her father is a zebra, while her mother is a horse. And she's walking proof of how a child inherits genes from both parents. For while most zebra-horse crossbreeds sport stripes across their entire body, Eclyse only has two such patches, on its face and rear. The one-year-old zorse was the accidental product of a holiday romance when her mother, Eclipse, was taken from her German safari park home to a ranch in Italy for a brief spell. There she was able to roam freely with other horses and a number of zebras, including one called Ulysses who took a fancy to her. When Eclipse returned home, she surprised her keepers by giving birth to the baby zorse whose mixed markings betray her colorful parentage. The foal was promptly given a name that is in itself a hybrid, of her parents' names.<SCRIPT><!--D(["mb","\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cstrong\>Now she's become a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland, where she has her own enclosure. \u003c/strong\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>Udo Richter, spokesman for the park, said, "You can tell she is a mix just by looking at her. But in temperament she can also exhibit characteristics from each parent. "She is usually relatively tame like a horse but occasionally shows the fiery temperament of a zebra, leaping around like one." \n\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cbr\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>Horses and zebras are often crossbred in Africa and are used as trekking animals on Mount Kenya.\u003c/font\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003cspan style\u003d\"color:white\" width\u003d\"1\"\>\u003c/span\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>Vet Heiner Vorbohle says the one-year-old will never be accepted by the zebras in the park, so they are looking for a male pony to give Eclyse some company. \n\u003c/font\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>He said: "She'll get a boyfriend, as we hope it might be possible to cross-breed again, but also so she doesn't have to stand here alone."\u003c/font\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>However, it's unlike little Eclyse will produce some baby zorses as cross-breeds, such as mules, are usually sterile.\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003cbr\>\u003c/font\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>Hybrids are an interesting curiosity. The mule is perhaps the most famous cross - a combination between a horse and a donkey - and an animal of economic importance because it is a hard worker.\u003c/font\>\n \u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>Hybrids are not easy to create, however. The mating pair's different number of chromosomes - the "packets" of DNA in each cell - makes a pregnancy hard to achieve.\u003c/font\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\n \u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>A horse has 64 chromosomes; the zebra has 44. The zorse that results from cross-breeding will have a number of chromosomes that is somewhere in between.\u003c/font\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>The zorse can only result where the sire is the zebra.\u003c/font\>",1]);//--></SCRIPT> Now she's become a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland, where she has her own enclosure. Udo Richter, spokesman for the park, said, "You can tell she is a mix just by looking at her. But in temperament she can also exhibit characteristics from each parent. "She is usually relatively tame like a horse but occasionally shows the fiery temperament of a zebra, leaping around like one." <BIG></BIG> <BIG>Horses and zebras are often crossbred in Africa and are used as trekking animals on Mount Kenya.</BIG> <BIG>Vet Heiner Vorbohle says the one-year-old will never be accepted by the zebras in the park, so they are looking for a male pony to give Eclyse some company. </BIG><BIG>He said: "She'll get a boyfriend, as we hope it might be possible to cross-breed again, but also so she doesn't have to stand here alone."</BIG> <BIG>However, it's unlike little Eclyse will produce some baby zorses as cross-breeds, such as mules, are usually sterile.</BIG> <BIG>Hybrids are an interesting curiosity. The mule is perhaps the most famous cross - a combination between a horse and a donkey - and an animal of economic importance because it is a hard worker. </BIG> <BIG>Hybrids are not easy to create, however. The mating pair's different number of chromosomes - the "packets" of DNA in each cell - makes a pregnancy hard to achieve.</BIG> <BIG>A horse has 64 chromosomes; the zebra has 44. The zorse that results from cross-breeding will have a number of chromosomes that is somewhere in between.</BIG> <BIG>The zorse can only result where the sire is the zebra.<SCRIPT><!--D(["mb","\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>"The smaller number of chromosomes has to be on the male side," said Lesley Barwise-Munro, a veterinary surgeon in Alnwick, Northumberland, and a spokeswoman for the British Equine Veterinary Association. \n\u003c/font\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cb\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>"If it had been the other way around there would have been no pregnancy. It's how nature works."\u003c/font\>\u003c/b\>\u003c/big\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbig\>\u003cfont size\u003d\"2\"\>\u003c/font\>\u003c/big\>*\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\n\u003cp\>\n\u003chr\>\n\n\u003cp\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\n\u003ccenter\>*\u003c/center\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://613286.sigclick.mailinfo.com/sigclick/05030003/0F074C03/06004F03/23231710.jpg\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>\u003c/a\>* \n\u003cp\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003c/p\>\n\u003cp\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003cbr clear\u003d\"all\"\>\u003cbr clear\u003d\"all\"\>\n",0]);//--></SCRIPT> </BIG> <BIG>"The smaller number of chromosomes has to be on the male side," said Lesley Barwise-Munro, a veterinary surgeon in Alnwick, Northumberland, and a spokeswoman for the British Equine Veterinary Association. </BIG> <BIG>"If it had been the other way around there would have been no pregnancy. It's how nature works."</BIG> <BIG></BIG>
How nice! interesting information! But it is sad to read that zebras don't accept her! There too... sriniketan
