[extropy-chat] FWD [Skeptic] Re: Fertile mules [was Re: Hybrids]

[Terry W. Colvin]

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:44:12 -0800, you fwded:

>"Terry W. Colvin" wrote:
>>
>> that any such reports are unreliable, and usually either a mare
>> that seemed  to be a hinny (female mule) or a hinny that
>adopted a foal and was mistaken for its mother.
>
>A hinny is not a "female mule."  A hinny is the product of a cross
>that is the reciprocal of the cross that yields a mule:
>
>male ass X female horse ---> mule
>female ass X male horse ---> hinny

. 

             For those who are following up with "Okay, what about the fertile
mule we have read about..."  - Fertile mules (hinnies) are a 1 in 1 million case
occurrence.  All known fertile hybrids in the equine world have been female
mules or hinnies.  Why these few is still scientifically a mystery, and there is
still scientific debate over the verification of some "Fertile"; cases.  The
most well known and documented cases are of Krause, a mare mule with two mule
sons, and a fertile hinny in China, who's offspring, Dragon Foal, is considered
unique.  The complications for Krause's cases is that her sire, Chester, is also
the sire of her sons.  However, DNA testing has been cataloged as conclusive
that both foals, Blue Moon and White Lighting, are Krause's foals.

           In most known cases of mule fertility, it has been noted that the
mare mule passed on a complete set of her Maternal genes to the foal.  Therefore
a female mule bred to a horse would produce a 100% horse foal.  Thus was the
case of Old Beck, who was at Texas A&M in the 1920's;.  This mare mule had a
mule daughter, Kit.  She was brought to TX A&M for observation.  She was bred to
a saddle horse stallion, and produced a horse son, Pat Murphy Jr.  Pat Jr was
fertile, and sired horse foals.  Beck aborted a third foal, sired by a jack,
which although deformed, appeared to be a regular mule.

                There has more recently been a case of a mare mule in Brazil who
has foaled two 100% horse sons.  Tests in the future will hopefully prove them
to be normal, fertile stallions.

              Dragon Foal, instead of being a donkey foal from the mating of a
hinny to a jack, is a unique hybrid, with combinations never documented before.
Visually, she appears to be a strange donkey with some more mule-like features,
and her chromosomes and DNA test seem to confirm this.
                  In the feline world, there are hybrids of Jungle cats and
domestic cats, crossed by breeders to have a large cat with the wild markings
and still be a pet.  The first-generation female hybrids (F-1) are fertile, but
the males are not.  It is not until the F-3 generation (F-1 Crossed back to
domestic cat is F-2, F-2 back to domestic cat again is F-#) that the males
become fertile again.
          
  There have been no recorded cases of entire male mules (Male mules are always
gelded  for use and show, no stallion mules are allowed) ever siring a foal.
The cases of fertile Mare mules are so low that the F-3 generation has not been
documented or verified in order to test this theory.  There is one case (which
has no scientific backing) of a mare mule whose Mule daughter was also fertile,
and foaled a male "hule" (very horselike in appearance but with some mule
characteristics) but no testing was ever done on the hule, and it is not known
if he was routinely gelded or was left entire.


-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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