Zorse
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[Photo] Zebra-horse hybrid foal with quagga-like markings, Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, England. Date 2004. Author Sarah Hartwell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Messybeast)

Family: Equidae
Genus: Equus
Species: E. zabra + cadallus
Binomial name: Equus zorse?

A zorse or zebrula is the offspring of a zebra stallion and a horse mare; the rarer reverse pairing is sometimes called a hebra. It is a zebroid: this term refers to any hybrid equine with zebra ancestry.

The zorse is shaped more like a horse than a zebra, but has boldly striped legs and, often, stripes on the body or neck. Like most other interspecies hybrids, it is infertile.

Cossar Ewart, Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh (1882-1927) and a keen geneticist, crossed a zebra stallion with horse and pony mares in order to investigate the theory of telegony, or paternal impression. Cossar Ewart used Arabian mares. Similar experiments were carried out by the US Government and reported in "Genetics in Relation to Agriculture" by E.B. Babcock and R.E. Clausen and in "The Science of Life" by H.G. Wells, J. Huxley and G.P. Wells (c.1929).

Zebras, donkeys and horses are both members of the family equus -- equines. Equines can be crossbred to produce hybrids. They are all slightly different in genetic makeup, but still all equines. That is, horses have 64 chromosomes, zebra have between 44 and 62 (depending on species). Zorses can be male or female, but are sterile since their chromosome count is 63.

Coloration
Zorses combine the zebra striping overlaid on colored areas of the hybrid's coat. Zorses are most often bred using solid colour horses. If the horse parent is piebald (black and white) or skewbald (other color and white) (these are known in the USA as paint/pinto) the zorse will inherit the genes for white patches. Only the coloured areas will have zebra striping, resulting in a zorse with white patches and striped patches. This effect is seen in the zebroid Eclyse born in Stukenbrock, Germany in 2007 to a zebra mare called Eclipse and a stallion called Ulysses.

Notable zorses
A zorse (more accurately a zony) was born at Eden Ostrich World, Cumbria, England in 2001 after a zebra was left in a field with a Shetland pony. It was referred to as a Zetland . This was the inspiration for the 2003 'Song For the Zorse' by London band The Coronets.
According to local lore brown zorses have been spotted in the foot hills of the appalachians in and around Charlottesville, Virginia.
In July 2007, a zorse named Eclyse, was born in Italy and moved to a zoo near G??tersloh in Germany. She became a local celebrity due to its unique coloring. The head and tail end (left side) are zebra but the body is white. She is the product of a female zebra, Eclipse, and a male horse named Ulysses.
In the Viva La Bam episode Groundhogs Day in the final race, Brandon Dicamillo's sled is a Zorse.
The 2007 movie I'm Reed Fish features a zorse named Zabrina.
An animated zorse appears in the alternate ending of the movie Racing Stripes. It is the son of Stripes (a zebra) and Sandy, a white filly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorse

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