I don’t know since when, horses have become very important to our human life, especially before modern vehicles appeared, almost most land vehicles, horses Is an important protagonist. In ancient times, horses were responsible for transportation, warfare, military, and agricultural production. Even in modern times, horses are still widely used as draught animals in certain areas. With the progress of the times, horses are used more and more widely. Such as the production of milk meat, viewing, competition and so on.
Horse evolution diagram
The horse originated in North America about 55 million years ago. After several important development stages, it has become what it is now. It is considered to be the earliest member of the equine family, that is, the ancestor of the horse. The first horse is small, like a fox, with four fingers on the front two feet and three toes on the back, which is very different from modern horses.
The exact time of the domestication of horses remains to be determined, but there is a large amount of evidence showing that horses were domesticated during the Bronze Age 5,000 years ago.
The zebra on the grassland
I believe it may not be the only one who has thought about it. In fact, there is another kind of horse, which is the zebra. From the appearance, the zebra is beautiful. The appearance is black and white, and the body structure is similar to that of ordinary domestic horses. Why has no one domesticated zebras for riding, service or animal husbandry?
Haven't the ancient people or ancestors ever moved this idea? The answer is of course not. In history, including now, there have indeed been attempts to tame zebras, but they are only a few examples, far from a scale.
Some examples of taming zebras
In history, Africans have done many attempts to tame zebras. In addition, when the British colonized this land in Africa, they also focused on the zebras here, but they were big In most cases, it ended in failure. Zebras are untamed and untamed. Even if they succeed, they are just a case. They are simply tamed, far from being domesticated.
According to the current literature records, most of them are attempts by the rich, because they have money and free time and are willing to spend more time and energy on trying this, and the probability of success is high.
Walter Rothschild and his famous zebra cart
Walter Rothschild did this attempt, he tamed several zebras to use Pulling carts and swaggering across the city, performing outside Buckingham Palace, caused a lot of commotion, but this only temporarily suppressed the nature of the zebra, once it was in heat, it was out of control.
Rosendo Ribeiro riding a zebra
In 1907, a doctor Rosendo Ribeiro in Nairobi, Kenya, he used zebras as a daily commute. Transportation;
George Gray
In the middle of the 18th century, George Gray transported his zebra in South Africa to New Zealand to pull the cart;
"Zebra Race" stills
Of course, if the most famous deed of zebras being used for riding, it is the movie "Zebra Race". At that time, when the filming of this work was done, the theater had asked People tamed 10 zebras for filming. With the help of top trainer Steve Martin, these zebras can complete most of the instructions, of course, including riding.
The zebra family on the grassland
I mentioned the origin of the horse, and the zebra evolved from the original horse 4 million years ago. The prehistoric horse of the zebra is the Kven horse, and the body shape is the same as today. The Grevy zebra looks more like it. Zebras are social animals that live in groups. They forage and play together.
But the zebra group is not like other herbivorous animals such as wildebeest. Most zebra groups are composed of female animals and juvenile cubs. Adult male zebras like to live alone, and only wait until it rains.When the season comes, they will live with the female zebras for a short time, with the purpose of mating and breeding the next generation.
Three kinds of zebras and their distribution
Zebra is an animal unique to Africa. There are currently 3 species, namely Eastern, Central and Southern Plain Zebras in Africa , the head and body length is 2-2.4 meters, the average weight is about 350 kilograms, the black stripes on the body are relatively wide, and the male zebra throat has hanging meat; the mountain zebra in the southwest of Africa, the head and body length is 2.1-2.6 Rice, weighing between 240-372 kg, is the smallest species of the three zebras, with fewer stripes on the body, but thick, and short mane on the nape of the neck; Eastern Africa's fine grained zebra , head and body It is 2.5-2.75 meters long and weighs between 350-450 kilograms. It is the largest zebra with very thin stripes and dense distribution.
The role of zebra stripes and its own advantages
The zebra looks very beautiful, the black and white colors on the body seem monotonous, but just like the giant panda has only two colors, it belongs to the type that can not be tired, but more Importantly, these stripes have a very important role. The stripes on the zebra are actually formed in the embryo as early as the mother’s early pregnancy. It is an innate protective color. Compared with the pure color animals, the zebra’s stripes are very confusing. Just as the markings on a tiger help it hide in the forest, the zebra's black and white stripes will reflect light in different directions under the sun or moonlight, making the overall outline of the zebra look very fuzzy and look very far away. It is difficult to separate from the environment.
The application of zebra stripes on warships
In addition, as early as 150 years ago, people have been looking at the zebra stripes and started research, and now more and more A lot of evidence proves that this kind of zebra stripes has a miraculous effect in preventing mosquito bites. This structure is deceptive to mosquitoes and can distract and weaken the attention of grassland mosquitoes. This protective mechanism was later used in various ways. Among them, for example, a color similar to zebra stripes painted on a warship can blur the opponent's vision.
Experiments on zebra
Behavioral performance of gadfly in three control groups
The University of California at Davis conducted a study, roughly The process is to wear different "vests" on an ordinary horse, which are pure black, pure white, and zebra stripes, and then study the performance of the gadfly in the three control groups. The study found that the frequency of the gadfly falling on the control group wearing a zebra-shaped "vest" was much lower than that of the other two groups. Through further research, it was found that the gadfly seemed to become "nearsighted" in front of the markings, and the sense of distance could not be judged. , Often bumps one head on the "vest", which further shows that the zebra's stripes are very confusing.
Compared with other herbivores in Africa, zebras have strong digestion ability, which ensures that even in seasons when food is scarce, zebras can survive well under low-nutrient conditions. In addition, in the face of African diseases, zebra's disease resistance is much stronger than ordinary horses.
Is zebra suitable for riding?
I said so much before, so are zebras suitable for riding? The answer is not suitable. First of all, we already know the answer from a realistic point of view. After all, up to now, zebra riding has not developed into a scale, far from reaching the level of horses, donkeys and other draught animals. What makes zebras unsuitable for transportation?
First of all, in terms of character, zebras are much more irritable than horses and donkeys. They live on the African savannah all year round. This is called the paradise of animals, but it is also one of the most dangerous places. There are a lot of predatory beasts. Due to the living environment, the zebra's character tends to be surprised. Any slight disturbance can make it alert and restless.
Angry Zebra
Most animals will haveFor stress response, if you stand behind a more aggressive horse butt, it will give you a kick, but if you stand behind a zebra, it will jump up and kick with its forelimb support. In addition, the zebra has another notable feature, that is, it prefers to bite people, and is similar to tortoises, so it won’t let go. It’s okay in the age when a bite is more developed, but if you were bitten by a zebra in ancient times, you might be infected with deadly bacteria.
When it comes to estrus, zebras will show restlessness. One word to describe it is “noisy”. Generally speaking, horses only strum their noses, which do not sound annoying, while zebras bark like a tuberculosis, and their sound is unpleasant, similar to a donkey neighing. If it is okay in an ordinary farmhouse, once it is used for marching and fighting, the spotted horse will undoubtedly be a burden.
Zebra herd on the grassland
Are zebras suitable for animal husbandry?
Since zebras are not suitable for riding, can they be used in animal husbandry like raising yak and sheep? In fact, this may not work, but why? You have to find the reason from the zebra. Generally speaking, animals that can be raised on a large scale must have a certain habit, and this habit can be inherited and stably retained from generation to generation. This habit is what we often call family.
Although zebra is also a social animal, its internal structure is not like a yak herd. It can be said that zebras are lonely social animals. When there is no external threat, a zebra herd is relatively loose, and it does not matter. "Leadership".
羊群
When people stock a group of yaks or sheep, they only need to control the leader, but if you stock a group of zebras, you need to chase them head by head. Back in the fence, when the number is small, it can handle it, but once it has formed a scale, it is really not easy to rely on a few herders to do it.
From the perspective of the zebra’s character, once people chase it, it will panic, become dangerous and angry, and the herders will be in danger. In addition, it will enter an endless loop. The restlessness of a zebra will affect the surrounding area. For the individual, the anxiety of the surrounding zebras aggravated the panic of this zebra.
Conditions for animals to be domesticated
Looking at the animals that have been domesticated and raised on a large scale today, there are several notable features. Among these features, no matter what is missing One, it may cause the domestication result to fail. Let’s take a look at the conditions that an animal needs to be domesticated:
- Family characteristics: This is well understood, just like a flock, it must have a stable family structure, and The hierarchical system is strict and the leader has enough authority so that people only need to get the leader of one population when large-scale breeding, then all the remaining individuals will follow, saving a lot of trouble;
- Food habits and growth rate: Due to the gradual decrease of energy in the food chain, in the ancient times when social productivity was not very developed, no carnivores were domesticated to serve as food, because the cost was too high to be as economical as herbivores; Feeding costs are high and slow-growing animals. Most pastures raise animals for economic income, so I hope these animals grow up as soon as possible.
- Tender personality: No one wants to live with a dangerous animal all day long, of course, for the pursuit of excitement or other purposes. Although every large domestic animal such as pigs, cattle, and sheep is capable of killing humans, they rarely do so. The docile personality also shows that it is not easy to be frightened. If the herd is fleeing because of a thunderstorm, then keeping them will not be worth the loss.
Of course, the above premises are considered as the first element of survival. After all, people domesticated animals for survival more than 4000 years ago. If you consider modern domestication as pets, then another Up.
Some beasts that have been temporarily tamed
And we need to figure out the difference between taming and taming, taming can only be said that the nature of animals is temporarily suppressed, just like those Riding spotHorses and tigers performing in a circus are the same. Once their offspring are not trained, they will still not obey. After being domesticated, dogs have adhered to humans from birth.
The meaning of domesticating zebras
Maybe modern people are taming zebras to satisfy curiosity and other purposes, but when people try to tame zebras for the first time, the purpose is very simple, mainly with He came to serve as a domestic animal, but after a long trial, it was found that it would not succeed, so he gave up.
The galloping horse
may raise thousands of them. After dozens of generations of arduous selection and breeding, you can eventually get the offspring of docile zebras. It doesn’t make any sense in the current era, because zebras have better and more easily domesticated alternatives.
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