Zebra Horse/Zorse

A zorse, or zebra horse, is a sterile hybrid of a male zebra and a female horse. Zebras and horses share the genus Equus but are separate species with very different chromosome counts: 64 in the horse against 44 in the plains zebra, 46 in Grevy's zebra and 32 in the mountain zebra. Foals come from zebra stallions bred to horse or pony mares; the reverse cross is reported not to conceive. Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1961, and in the 1890s the Edinburgh professor James Cossar Ewart bred a Burchell's zebra stallion to mares to test the theory of telegony.

The sire matters to a buyer. The plains zebra is not listed under the US Endangered Species Act or CITES, while Grevy's zebra is listed as threatened and on CITES Appendix I, and mountain zebras are listed as endangered or threatened and on Appendix II. USFWS guidance says captive-bred hybrid offspring are not protected by the Endangered Species Act, but CITES treats a hybrid with a listed zebra in its last four generations under that zebra's appendix for import and export. Ask for the sire's species and breeding records. In Great Britain, any zebra hybrid needs a Dangerous Wild Animals license.

Colors: Bay with Stripes, Black and White Striped, Brown and White Striped, Gray and White Striped