A mule is the hybrid offspring of a male donkey (ass) and a female horse (mare). The less-frequent cross between a female ass and a male horse results in a hinny, or hinney, which is smaller than a mule. Mules were beasts of burden in Minor Asia at least 3,000 years ago and are still used today in many parts of the world because of their ability to withstand hardships and perform work under conditions too severe for many other draft and pack animals. Mules are usually sterile.
The mule resembles the horse in height, uniformity of coat, and shape of neck and croup. It resembles the donkey in its short, thick head, long ears, thin limbs, small hooves, and short mane. The coat is usually brown or bay. In size, mules range widely from about 12 to 17.5 hands (120 to 180 cm, or 50 to 70 inches) in height and from 275 to 700 kg (600 to 1,500 pounds) in weight.
Biology[]
The mule is valued because, while it has the size and ground-covering ability of its dam, it is stronger than a horse of similar size and inherits the endurance and disposition of the donkey sire, tending to require less food than a horse of similar size. Mules also tend to be more independent than most domesticated equines other than its parental species, the donkey.
The median weight range for a mule is between about 370 and 460 kg (820 and 1,000 lb). While a few mules can carry live weight up to 160 kg (353 lb), the superiority of the mule becomes apparent in their additional endurance.
In general, a mule can be packed with dead weight of up to 20% of its body weight, or approximately 90 kg (198 lb). Although it depends on the individual animal, it has been reported that mules trained by the Army of Pakistan can carry up to 72 kilograms (159 lb) and walk 26 kilometres (16.2 mi) without resting. The average equine in general can carry up to approximately 30% of its body weight in live weight, such as a rider.
A female mule that has estrus cycles and thus, in theory, could carry a fetus, is called a "molly" or "Molly mule", though the term is sometimes used to refer to female mules in general. Pregnancy is rare, but can occasionally occur naturally as well as through embryo transfer. A male mule is properly called a horse mule, though often called a john mule, which is the correct term for a gelded mule. A young male mule is called a mule colt, and a young female is called a mule filly.
Characteristics[]
With its short thick head, long ears, thin limbs, small narrow hooves, and a short mane, the mule shares characteristics of a donkey. In height and body, shape of neck and rump, uniformity of coat, and teeth, it appears horse-like. The mule comes in all sizes, shapes and conformations. There are mules that resemble huge draft horses, sturdy quarter horses, fine-boned racing horses, shaggy ponies and more.
The mule is an example of hybrid vigor. Charles Darwin wrote: "The mule always appears to me a most surprising animal. That a hybrid should possess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature".
The mule inherits from its sire the traits of intelligence, sure-footedness, toughness, endurance, disposition, and natural cautiousness. From its dam it inherits speed, conformation, and agility. Mules are reputed to exhibit a higher cognitive intelligence than their parent species. That said, there is a lack of robust scientific evidence to back up these claims. There is preliminary data from at least two evidence based studies, but they rely on a limited set of specialized cognitive tests and a small number of subjects. Mules are generally taller at the shoulder than donkeys and have better endurance than horses, although a lower top speed.
Handlers of working animals generally find mules preferable to horses: mules show more patience under the pressure of heavy weights, and their skin is harder and less sensitive than that of horses, rendering them more capable of resisting sun and rain. Their hooves are harder than horses', and they show a natural resistance to disease and insects. Many North American farmers with clay soil found mules superior as plow animals.
A mule does not sound exactly like a donkey or a horse. Instead, a mule makes a sound that is similar to a donkey's but also has the whinnying characteristics of a horse (often starts with a whinny, ends in a hee-haw). Mules sometimes whimper.
History[]
The mule is "the most common and oldest known manmade hybrid". It was likely invented in ancient times in what is now Turkey. They were common in Egypt by 3000 BCE. Homer noted their arrival in Asia Minor in the Iliad in 800 B.C. According to parts of the Bible written in the first millennium BCE, King David and King Solomon both rode mules at their coronations. Christopher Columbus brought mules to the New World.
Modern Usage[]
In the second half of the 20th century, widespread usage of mules declined in industrialized countries. The use of mules for farming and transportation of agricultural products largely gave way to steam then gasoline powered tractors and trucks.
Mules are still used extensively to transport cargo in rugged roadless regions, such as the large wilderness areas of California's Sierra Nevada mountains or the Pasayten Wilderness of northern Washington state. Commercial pack mules are used recreationally, such as to supply mountaineering base camps, and also to supply trail building and maintenance crews, and backcountry footbridge building crews. As of July 2014, there are at least sixteen commercial mule pack stations in business in the Sierra Nevada. The Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club has a Mule Pack Section that organizes hiking trips with supplies carried by mules.
During the Soviet–Afghan War, mules were used to carry weapons and supplies over Afghanistan's rugged terrain to the mujahideen. Approximately 3.5 million donkeys and mules are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. Mule trains have been part of working portions of transportation links as recently as 2005 by the World Food Programme.