Status: Undetermined (but unlikely)
A Canadian rancher claims that one of his mares has
given birth to a horse-moose hybrid. His main evidence for this is that the mare has a funny looking head. Also, he says that his stallions were both sterilized shortly before the mare got pregnant, and there are no other male horses in the region. So who could the father be but a rogue moose that happened to be wandering by?
Biologists, naturally, are skeptical. Gilles Landry, a biologist with Quebec's parks and wildlife department, says:
"I have serious doubts because there has never been a birth from a moose and a horse reported, even though some have mated. It's more likely that it's a deformed animal."
Lou emailed me a
bunch of
links to
articles about this strange hybrid (Thanks, Lou!) and writes:
Definitely a hoax or mistake. It has a facial deformity that makes it look moose-like. Claims supporting it is a moose hybrid include long legs. Foals have long legs so they can keep up with their mothers. Also it sleeps lying down. Foals do sleep lying down. It's adult horses that sleep standing up. The mare either got impregnated just before the stallions were gelded and the owner got the dates mixed or the father was a colt that hasn't yet been gelded because it wasn't thought old enough to do the do.
I agree with Lou and the biologists. A horse-moose hybrid seems unlikely. Although I suppose it would be biologically possible. But we'll know for sure once the genetic tests are done.
I should start a new gallery devoted to strange hybrids, since it seems like there's been a lot of them reported recently (i.e. the
cumato and the
cuculoupe.) The strangest hybrid of all would, of course, be a human-ape hybrid, but there remains no evidence that such a creature has existed in modern times (as opposed to prehistoric times), despite the efforts of Russian scientist
Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov.
Comments
My favorite hybrid has always been the world's largest cat, the Liger. "Gosh!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger
The Cat-Snake: http://www.weirdspot.com/index.php/weblog/amazing_snake_cat/
CU,
BlaM
I've seen lots of horses with long legs and big heads, it's not uncommon. To me, the foal has a bit of a moose-look, but horses don't look much different than moose in the first place.
On "bunch" link that black horse with the white socks has a MAJOR crack in his left fore.
The photo proffered looks a lot like a mule to me. A mule is, of course, a horse-donkey hybrid, usually the offspring of a male donkey (a jackass for you romantics) and, as here, a female horse (a mare). If male horse fathers offspring by a female donkey (a Jenny), the resulting colt is known as a hinney. As Trace says, such hybrids are almost always sterile, but they are very common, so much so that every self-respecting farm used to have at least one mule.
Even though we share 97% or so of our DNA with chimpanzees, we have different karyotypes (how the stuff is packaged into chromosomes)--couldn't happen (again without some sort of very advanced manipulation).
http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hybrid-cats.htm (though the link says hybrid cats, the page is hybrid and mutant mammals and birds)
I've seen overhanging lips like that in heavy horses e.g. Shire Horses.