MORE IN WILD HORSE (MUSTANG) HISTORY SECTION: Domestication of the Horse Horses Return to America Horses Return to Wild Alternative Histories Wild Horses mid-1800's through 1971 Modern Wild Horses Source Readings

PRE-HISTORY OF THE HORSE:

North America was the original home of the horse species. They evolved here, and thrived here for over 57 million years. The plant and animal communities of North American ecology evolved with horses playing an integral role. About 8,000 - 10,000 years ago, for reasons not yet fully understood (meteors, climate change, pandemic, and human hunting pressures are among the possibilities), horses are believed to have become extinct in the land of their origin. Luckily by that time they had migrated to Asia, where they spread into Europe and North Africa.

illustration from darwiniana.org

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/prehistory

THE SEVEN LIVING SPECIES OF THE EQUUS FAMILY
During the Pleistocene Era, there were more than 50 species of equids in the Americas.
Now there are, worldwide, only 7 (or 8, depending on how you classify Przewalski's. Some consider it a separate species, others say it is a subspecies of equus caballus)

www.takhi.org/cms/index.php
Przewalski's Horse or Takhi
Some hold Przewalski's to be a separate species from the domestic horse (Equus Caballus), the last remnant of the wild horse Equus ferus, others hold it is a subspecies of Equus caballus.

Although the Przewalski's horse has 66 chromosomes, compared to 64 in a domestic horse, the Przewalski's horse and the domestic horse are the only equids that cross-breed and produce fertile offspring, possessing 65 chromosomes.^[3]

"The Przewalski horse can be crossed successfully with the domestic horse, producing offspring with 65 chromosomes. Unlike the offspring of a domestic horse and an animal such as a donkey or zebra, the offspring of a Przewalski/domestic horse is not sterile and can be crossed back to either species. If the offspring is crossed back to a domestic horse, the resulting animal will have 64 chromosomes and very few Przewalski characteristics." - WIKIPEDIA

Family Equidae
"Equus"

Modern Horse
Equus Caballus

en.wikipedia.org
African Wild Ass

Nubian Wild Ass - as a Wild animal
The progenitor of all modern donkeys, including the Burro of the western states and Mexico. It was first domesticated about 6000 years ago. The Nubian Wild Ass is most likely extinct in the wild since the 1950's. However, the IUCN Red List ^[1] still mentions it as critically endangered.
- Wikipedia

Tibetan Kiang

Asiatic wild ass/Onager

photo: John Kok, via Wikipedia
Grevy's zebra

photo: Moongateclimber, via Wikipedia
Mountain zebra

photo: Whozoo.org
Plains (aka "Burchell's) Zebra

Zebras are horse or donkey-like animals with stripes. They are social animals who live in small harems or large herds. Zebras were the second modern equid to diverge from the earliest proto-horses, after the asses, around 4 million years ago. They are close enough genetically to horses to interbreed, although the offspring, like horse-donkey offspring, are sterile. (Horse-Zebra crosses are called Zorses)

The three existing zebra species differ in appearance primarily in ear shape and striping patterns. To each other, they differ in more fundamental ways: Although their territories overlap, they do not interbreed in the wild. In captivity, Plains Zebras have been successfully crossed with Mountain zebras. Attempts to breed Grevy's zebras to Mountain Zebras results in a high rate of miscarriage. In captivity, crosses between zebras and other (non-zebra) equines have produced several distinct hybrids, including the zebroid, zeedonk, zony, and zorse. (much of this is drawn from Wikipedia)

Although it is currently popular to own a zebra, zebras resist domestication, are extremely strong, have a far more powerful sense of self-preservation than other equines, require very expensive fencing and handling equipment, and generally make unreliable exotic pets, at best a pretty pasture ornament who is somewhat handle-able. Although a few trainers occasionally manage to train an individual zebra to a basic level of performance (catching, haltering, leading, perhaps doing a few tricks or allowing a person to ride briefly), zebras have so far never been succesfully domesticated. There is an old African saying, "If Zebras could be trained, no one (in Africa) would be walking..."

EQUUS SPECIES THAT HAVE BECOME EXTINCT WITHIN THE PAST 150 YEARS
During the millions of years that Mother Nature has experiemnted with Equine designs, many species have come and gone. Here are two of the more recent departures:

Tarpan
This is the only known photo of a live Tarpan, ''Equus ferus ferus''. This Tarpan stallion was caught in 1866 and purchased by the zoo of Moscow. Some dispute if it was a true Tarpan, due to the length of the mane.

It is now thought that the domesticated horse, named Equus caballus by Linnaeus in 1758, is descended from the Tarpan; Many taxonomists consider them to belong to the same species. - Wikipedia

The Polish Konik breed is thought to be a direct descendant of Tarpans. Click this link for an interesting article about Tarpans by Hardy Oelke

Click for article about modern attempts to re-create the Tarpan

Quagga mare in London Zoo in 1870
Quagga
The Quagga was native to desert areas of the African continent until it was exterminated in the wild in the 1870s. The last captive Quaggas died in Europe in the 1880s.

The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied. Recent genetic research at the Smithsonian Institution has demonstrated that the Quagga was in fact not a separate species at all, but diverged from the extremely variable P lains Zebra, Equus burchelli, between 120,000 and 290,000 years ago, and suggests that it should be named Equus burchelli quagga. - Wikipedia

Links to source articles and more information:

: Wildlife Statement to Congress
ABORIGINAL NORTH AMERICAN HORSE?
Science magazine 2001: WIDESPREAD ORIGINS OF THE DOMESTIC HORSE
Rainshadow Wild Horse EcoSystem study (Canada)

LEARN MORE:

CLICK HERE for the Oxford Journal's article about genetic research into horse origins
CLICK HERE for the Oxford Journal's article exploring horse genetics
CLICK HERE to read a "Science Daily" article about prehistoric domestication of the horse
Click here for WIDESPREAD ORIGINS OF THE DOMESTIC HORSE

VIDEOS OF INTEREST TO MUSTANG & BURRO ADOPTERS:

Kitty Lauman:
From Wild to Willing: Using the Bamboo Pole to Gentle Mustangs
More from Lauman Training available now!

Lesley Neuman:
The First Touch
Gentling Your Mustang
$45.00

America’s Heritage: Wild Horses

A SHORT HISTORY OF HORSES IN AMERICA
"If I had more time, I would have written less" - Mark Twain

MAIN TOPICS:

TO CONTINUE EXPLORING HORSE HISTORY IN THIS SECTION:

Domestication of the Horse

Horses Return to America

Horses Return to Wild Alternative Histories

Wild Horses mid-1800's through 1971

Modern Wild Horses

VIDEOS OF INTEREST TO MUSTANG & BURRO ADOPTERS:Kitty Lauman: From Wild to Willing: Using the Bamboo Pole to Gentle MustangsMore from Lauman Training available now!

Lesley Neuman:The First TouchGentling Your Mustang$45.00