Monday, June 09, 2008

Mrs. Ottokar Bartik


Scan10264, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Sells-Floto & Buffalo Bill 1914 or 1915.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are these half zebra and half donkey? They look like zebroid mules.

Buckles said...

In layman's terms, "Zonkies".

Anonymous said...

These hybrids are from an experiment by the US Dept of Agriculture. The National zoo loaned the Dept a magnificent Grevy zebra stallion that had been a gift to Pres. Teddy Roosevelt by King Menelik of Abysinnia (now Ethiopia) in 1904.

They bred the Grevy to both the domestic ass and horse. The object was to develop an equine with the strength of the horse or ass but without the wildness of the zebra. Why? - - so they could get an equine that would resist the African tsetse fly which doesn’t bother the zebra but is deadly to domestic horses.

The hybrids did not work out as hoped. Several were given to the National zoo and others were sold to Sells Floto. There are a lot of photos of them on S-F.

Anonymous said...

All of the zonkeys I've seen in pictures were tiny things with stripes only on the legs.