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Mules Species

Mules are the cross-breeds of donkey stallion and horse mare. Read here: What is a Mule?

These are the most common Mule species:

Hinny

The hinny is the hybride product of a horse stallion (father) and donkey mare. A hinny is not a mule. As a hybrid hinnies are not capable of reproduction. Breeding of hinnies is far more difficult than breeding mules and are only rarely likes due to their only little advantages over the donkey, however, still they are used as pulling and/or carrying animals.
A hinny is not a mule, because it is carried out by a donkey mare, it looks only a little different from a house donkey, its voice only sounds a little different. Hinnies have a good-natured character but far not so easy like mules. Their character is more donkey like, but they are less shy than a donkey.

Zebroids
Zorse
Zebrule
Zebrony

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What is a Mule Deer?

(lat. Odocoileus hemionus)

The Mule deer, also called big-eared deer, lives in the western mountain regions of the North American continent. Its population is spread up from south Alaska in the north, to Mexico in the south and from the pacific coast in the west to North and South Dakota in the east.
In opposite to the mule deer’s cousin the white tailed deer. The mule deer is not a commensal species, but likes it to stay hidden and live an invisible life in areas far away from civilisation.
The colouring of the mule deer is dependent on the season and varies of cold grey till red-brown. It reaches a body length of 170 to 220 cm, a weight from 50 to 160 kg and a shoulder height of 100 to 120 cm. The antlers are not very big, subdivided for this but clear and graceful.

The Mule deer got its name because of its long ears (28 cm), which make him look like a Mule. Hunters also call him “jumping deer”, because Mule deer often jump while fleeing..

Males and females live, e in separate herds, older males, sometimes as loners. The cohesion of these herds is loose and a strict hierarchy is only developed during the mating season.
Mule deer like it to spend the summer in the upper mountain regions and return to their lower residents in winter. There the stronger males assemble smaller groups of females around himself during the rutting season in December with which they mate and from whom they jealously keep every rival away.

The pups occur after a gestation period of 210 days in June and July during the leisurely remigration to the summer residence. At the birth they weigh 2 to 3 kg and carry a spotted fur.
Within the first days they hide in the thicket and are visited by the mother only for suckling.
They then follow her and hook up to the herd. In the first months of their life, many of them become the victim of pumas, coyotes and bobcats.

Because of excessive hunting the mule deer population went back from 10 million down to 300.000 in the beginning of the 20th century. The population increased back to 5 millions but however, stagnates since the 1960’s.

The mule deer is not a hybrid species!

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What characteristics do Mules have?

Mules are regarded as good-natured and straight from the character unlike horses also as far less shy. Just like donkeys and unlike horses they are resilient and recover from hardships very quickly. They have a very high expectancy of life. Mules are far more good-natured as carrying animals, they can transport up to 150 kg over a distance of 30 to 40 km on a day.
They are better draught animals than horses and have a better endurance just like donkeys.
Mules proved themselves particularly at the pulling of ploughs on difficult grounds made of clay minerals, which are common in the United States. Because of their straightness and will power they are called to be stubborn. Because of their thick skin they are far less sensitive against rising and falling temperatures during the day. Mules have a more robust physical constitution and harder teeth than horses, what simplifies the feeding particularly under difficult geographical and/or climatic conditions. In addition, they show a better natural resistance against insects and parasites.

The hooves of a mule are adapted to a stony underground as that one of a horse and more like those of a donkey and are more adapted for endurance than for speed. The mule connects the efficiency of a horse with the kick safety of a donkey at a greater endurance in terrains. Nevertheless, a riding mule may reach a speed up to 60km/h on short distances.

Recapitulating it can be told that mules have the considerateness, the stamina and the kick safety of a donkey combined with the straightness, the strength and the courage of a horse.
A mule is a good riding animal for less experienced riders and is very good controllable and does not let expect any surprises if the Mule is well educated. It doesn’t stand bad or unjust treatment; however, it can react very aggressive without any warning.

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What is a Zebra Mule?

Zebra Mules are hybrids of a Zebra with another animal of the genus horse and are generally called Zebroids. They are used as carrying animals on tourist farms in Kenya. The mother of these animals is usually a warm blood mare, the father a zebra stallion. In the United States they are used as hobby and show- animals. Earlier the colonial troops of Wilhelm II were using Zebroids as carrying animals. The sense of the hybride of horse and Zebra was that Zebras couldn’t be domesticated and horses were not fully tropic fit. The troops thought, that the hybrids would be just like the zebra insensitive against the sting of the tsetse-fly. The use of the Zebroide was bonded with great difficulties because of the mulish temperament of the zebras.

The Zorse (Zebra and horse)

Zorse describes especially the hybrids of a horse and zebra which usually shows a greater similarity to a horse than to a zebra. Zorses have hologram similar stripes which seem to change their form depending on the viewpoint and time of day.

Like the mules and hinnies, as a rule, Zebroids are not capable of reproduction.

The Zebrule

Zebrule is a hybrid between a zebra and a donkey and is also called Zebronkey. The Zebrule is usually sterile. As a wild animal it can be found in areas where Zebras and Wild-donkeys live in very close neighbourhood. Some are known about these hybrids.

Zebrony

A hybrid of a Zebra and a pony, they are as small as a pony, dark fur but still some stripes, just like the Zebra. This tiny animal has still a zebra dominated character.

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What is a Mule?

A horse which has long ears?
A donkey which is similar to a horse?

The voice, so incredible, that it cannot be described.

What makes this animal so special?

When a male donkey and a female horse get an offspring, then this offspring is a hybrid of both races and is called “mule”. When a male horse and a female donkey get an offspring, then the hybrid is called a hinny.

From the zoological point of view, the differences between mule and hinny are still not researched enough, so we still cannot say clearly that a hinny has these and a mule has those properties. That’s why people still call hinnys mules, or just donkeys.

The mule is basically an invention of the human and was done by an accident. In different books just like in Lorrain Travis’s book “The Mule”, you can read, that 3000 years before Christ in Nubia, people first tried to create a hybrid between horse and donkey. The breed foals had better properties than the steed less horses of that time age. That was the beginning of the mule husbandry.

Mules have thick and short head and long ears, a short mane, narrow hooves and it tail is hairless.

The mule belongs, just like its parents to the family of “Equides”, so it has the behaviour of both animals. It is an herbivore animal, and in the wild, both horse and donkey are preys, and are hunted by predators. Horses live in wide open areas and donkeys in rocky mountain shaped areas. In this case horses have to flee with their herd. Donkeys have more possibilities it is not always recommended to flee, when living on a mountain (cliffy paths, danger of plunge) they can flee downhill or stay in place if they can’t be reached by the predator. Also in this case a mule has a mixed behaviour, when it is in danger in wide areas it sometimes decides to run away or it just stands still. Sometimes when a mule feels danger it tries to defend itself very aggressive, but that doesn’t mean that it has a mad personality, it is the mule’s mixed behaviour.

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