Just a quick question while waiting on Mike Yancey to start the thread...

Well....have you ever seen one in the wild?

Ok I'm in..  Terry is that a zebra and feral donkey??

 

I've seen them on a farm before, but never in the wild. Have seen a zorse or a hebra as well. Pretty neat looking.

I see stuff like that once in a while, but when I do my wife tells me " That's enough drinking for you tonight, take that thing outside " 

Ok.....how about a Zorse?

I saw two Zonkeys when I was in Namibia this spring the PH said they were very rare! The ones we saw were the rarest of the rare as they were a cross between and Mountain Zebra and a donkey. I didn't even know they existed until my hunt to Africa.

I am almost ready to get with the thread. I've been at a dead run ever since I landed! Ill try to get it up tomorrow.

Yes I did
a kind of  [attachment=1,msg2880385][attachment=2,msg2880385]

it would be easier to put a saddle on a cammule.

Sounds more like they are referring to an okapi

Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond, is one of the most informative books I've read in my life.  It discusses how the differences in natural resources in different parts of the world influenced how different civilizations developed, or failed to develop.  In discussing Africa, and why no major civilization has ever developed there, he mentions the zebra, among a great many other factors.  He says that one factor contributing to the lack of a great African civilization is the fact that the Zebra cannot be domesticated, unlike the horse in Europe and other places where they had horses.  Who knows?  Maybe if they'd had the opportunity to crossbreed it with other breeds, like in the examples above, things might have turned out differently.

No major civilisation in Africa??
Never heard about Ancient Aegypt (aegypt northern Sudan part of Lybia, eastern Mediterranean lands...)? They were the most advanced civilisation during 3 millenium.... not sure our western civilization will last that long 

Sorry, you're right.  Should have said sub-Saharan Africa.

Corruption, like with the Somalia slave trading by the Arab cross upper class, creating a cast system, has caused much damage for many hundreds of years in Africa. Much of the knowledge of the tribal priests  that had been handed down for thousands of years has remained hidden.  Western CNN style egotism makes a judgement, 'how could those people know that?' so the knowledge is automatically disqualified.  Never discount the objective observational abilities of aboriginal people.