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Posted by Sue Tx
on 9/5/2008, 10:20 am, in reply to "Domestication, ownership of Zebras, New Poster!"
68.91.254.40
Welcome, Juan! You have asked excellent questions. I will share what little I have learned about the interaction of humans and Zebras.
When the Europians first came to Africa to colonize, they brought horses. They soon learned that horses didn't do well there because of the insect borne diseases that zebras are immune to. So they started to catch and train zebras for draft animals. Apparently they did have some luck with this because there are a few old photos of zebras in harness.
But the automobile and train became available and the "domestication" of the zebra became unnecessary. As to why the indigenous people of Africa never availed themselves of this resource is anybody's guess. The genetic diversity of the natives of Africa is greater than Europeans so making sweeping statements about why anything happen is unwise. Probably there were a lot of factors at work.
I have a more contemperary question, and Juan you might be able to explore this. If a mare zebra is hand raised and trained and then allowed to have a baby, might her baby learn from day one to learn from humans? Might that be the true path to domestication? Has anyone done this yet? I find the propect exciting and the world is still open to our relationship with this wonderous species.
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