Next post

There should be a new post in a week or so.

Wolves of Ellesmere Island - new update

It was confirmed that Brutus is dead.

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/04/brutus-confirmed-cead.html

Update to "Wolves of Ellemere Island" post

It looks like something bad may have happened to Brutus.

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/2010/04/serious-trouble.html

Tumblr link corrected

I've started a Tumblr blog.

http://prarieramblings.tumblr.com/

Hats Off to the Roaring 20's! - A Special Guest Post from Cyndy

A big thanks to Cyndy for writing this very interesting post

Let's go back in time to the flapper era of the Roaring 20's!

As an avid vintage hat collector, restorer and hairstylist I find this era to be exciting, sultry, and dramatic.

Milliners offered their gorgeous creation, "The Flapper Cloche", which was first created in 1908. This had a helmet-like appearance. It became the iconic hat of the 1920's. The hat was worn correctly by pulling it over eyes and fitting it snugly. The body of the hat was primarily felt, and the summer cloche was primarily made with sisal, a fine straw. They cloche was embellished by varnishing for a shiny appearance , and by adding raffia or gorgeous ribbon . When the hat needed a revamping, it was frequently painted.

Normally the appliques or other adornments were applied to one side only. Glorious "feather fans" fell to one side , usually the right. Glimmering trimmings such as diamond clips, platinum and diamond brooches were worn by the the prosperous and stylish on their cloches.

Casual brimmed felt cloches were combined with stylish day wear for a day at the beach , sporting events and offered a neat and tidy look.

Many cloche hats were influenced by the art deco movement, and had gorgeous appliques and zigzag seaming The crowns often included a beret-like top, or a bell top (bulbous crown). which made the wearer appear taller.

In 1922, a cloche with a small brim at the front was introduced. In 1926,a new design featured a reduced brim, and by 1928, it had disappeared.

The acceptability of the harsh, dramatic style of the cloche was enhanced by the use of sophisticated, chic makeup and self-assured hairstyles. One would often see a woman in public places such as a restaurant or dance hall open her glamorous compact and touch up her makeup. I believe that this was a new symbol of refinement and feminine grace. A luscious ox blood red lipstick with only a hint of rouge was an absolute, must, and the hair was cropped short to accommodate the close fitting cloches, which were a statement of the "new woman". By 1923, the bob, a pageboy style with a bit of length, was seen everywhere, The razor cut shingle style began in 1924.

The Marcel wave and the finger wave (which I learned and are quite time consuming and challenging) began in the mid-20's. These waves became the "norm" and helped conform to the contour of the cloches. The Eton crop, introduced in 1927,was the most extreme hairstyle. Hair was greased, slicked and had a brilliant sheen. A particularly lovely example of this style was that worn by the great singer and dancer Josephine Baker. I've included some photographs and music of Ms. Baker for your enjoyment,.

One of my other loves is the music of the 20's. I shall let the videos of fashion and music take you on a marvelous journey. You also might want to rise up from your chair and do the new low down !

By late 1928 women wanted to rid of the cloche and show their hair and facial features to the world. That would open a whole new world of hats, hairstyles and makeup which would lead me to the 1930's and another blog post.

Many thanks Bob for inviting me to share my love of vintage hats and hairstyles ! This is my very first blog post and I truly enjoyed every moment !

Here are several pictures of cloches. First, the brimless cloche.

The bell-shaped cloche.
The beaded, embellished cloche.





Two clips of Josephine Baker:







Two short flapper films.







Louis Armstrong's great "Muskrat Ramble"

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC Radio 4 has started an excellent new series, "A History of the World in 100 Objects", which will be broadcast throughout 2010. Rather then telling history in the standard way by focusing on documents, it uses objects from the collection of the British Museum, and covers 2,000,000 years of human history. The radio shows, which can be streamed or downloaded, are 15 minutes long.

The podcasts are narrated by Neal MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, and includes the voices of many contributors. One of the great things about the project is that it's interactive, and anyone, provided they meet the project guidelines, can add an object to the website.

Here's a description of the project.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2009/11/history_of_the_world_100_objects.html

The homepage for the project:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/explorerflash/#/object_TnAQ0B8bQkSJzKZFWo6F-g

Here are two objects from the collection. The first is a sculpture of swimming reindeer, found in France, from about 11,000 B.C.


The second is a Mesopotamian clay tablet from about 300o B.C., with information about beer rationing.




The podcasts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow


This video explains how to add an object to the site. Registration with the BBC is required.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ahistoryoftheworld/

Wolves of Ellesmere Island

I've been following an interesting blog lately that tracks the movements of a pack of 23-25 wolves on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands, located in the Canadian High Arctic. The research team, lead by Dave Mech and Dean Cluff,was able to place a GPS/ARGOS radio tracking collar on Brutus, the leader of the pack, in July 2009, making following the pack much easier, particularly during the long winter. Tracking data is stored in the collar and Emailed to the project team every four days.

The packs home area is centered on Eureka, where there is a weather station. They feed primarily on musk-oxen, caribou, and arctic hares.

Here is the "Wolves of the High Arctic" blog

http://internationalwolfcenter.blogspot.com/

An article by Dave Mech on arctic wolves:

http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_mech.html



Here's a photo taken of Brutus at the wolves den.




This photo , and many others taken by the expedition can be found here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/intlwolfcenter/

Brutus exhibits dominant behavior towards an offspring.



Summertime on Ellesmere Island.




I'm not sure if this is this is Brutus's pack.

A few linguistic treats

Here's another short blog post with some interesting links.

The all too infrequently updated blog "grow-a-brain" has some interesting links to unusual language sites.

http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/languages/

Here are three particularly interesting links.

"One Sentence" posts true stories, concisely told. Many of the best ones seem more like the opening line of really intriguing story.

http://www.onesentence.org/


Here's a collection of sixteenth-century jokes:

http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/jokes.html

This is great collection of "shaggy dog" stories and Feghoots. The name "Feghoot" comes from "Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot", a series of short-short stories that appeared regularly in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" from the 1950's into the 1970's. They all end with painful puns, similar to those in "The Adventures of Peabody and
Sherman" episodes on "Rocky and Bullwinkle".

http://www.awpi.com/Combs/Shaggy/

Great and Odd Photos

I'm going to slowly start blogging again.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, one of my favorite blogs is PCL Link Dump.

http://easydreamer.blogspot.com/

Through a link there I discovered a great photo blog, Black and WTF.

http://blackandwtf.tumblr.com/

Here are three photos. Check the blog for many more great ones

The British Library Archive of Recorded Sound

It's been a while since the last post, and I'm slowly going to try to blog more.

Yesterday I was reading about major updates to the online sound archives of the British Library. This is an amazing collection. Access to the collections varies according to geographic location; more files are available to residents of the United Kingdom, and even more to those who are associated with a UK institution of higher learning. Over 23,000 sound files are available to everyone.

The archive includes spoken word and musical recordings, and includes both field and commercial recordings. The files can't be embedded, so links are provided instead.

My favorite part of the collection is the archive of world and traditional music. Of particular interest are 952 recordings from Decca's West Africa yellow label series. These are commercial recordings, made between 1948 and 1958, and include many rare performances that are unavailable elsewhere.

Here are Adeolu and his Rio Lindo Orchestra from this series:

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=025M-1CS0043775XX-0100V0.xml

The archive also contains 244 ethnographic wax cylinder recordings, made between 1898 and 1919. The sound quality is poor, but they are well worth hearing.

Here is the beautiful and disturbing "Death Wail", recorded in 1898 during the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait, which is located between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=025M-C0080X1104XX-0100V0.xml

Mr. Seagalman calls horses, cows, sheep, and fowl. (UK, 1910)

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=025M-C0037X1639XX-0100V0.xml

This is the blog for the Sound Archive, which features a Recording of the Week.

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/archival_sounds/


The archive also contains a collection of regional sounds and dialects from many locations in England, This recordings are interesting not only for their preservation of dialects, but because they are also oral histories, and provide a record of a way of life that no longer exists.

A resident of Cheshire discusses traveling through the area with his threshing machine. This was recorded in 1966. The speaker was 76 at that time.

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0908X0011XX-0300V0.xml

Fox Movietone news and newsreels

I will probably have a more comprehensive post later in the week, but for now here are several interesting Fox Movietone Newsreels and news shorts:

Thomas Edison dies; with clips from an interview of Edison on his 84th birthday.





The first sound recording of Gandhi. The sound is rough here, but there is a transcript on the original YouTube page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9Avdn2Z38&feature=related



Shaw swims, discusses the U.S. Constitution, etc.





The 1932 Presidential campaign; the death of Rin Tin Tin





And now for something completely different.

The Great Cranberry Crisis of 1959

Here's a belated Thanksgiving post, although is probably works better as a post-Thanksgiving post, since it's about food contamination.

I was listening to a great podcast from Angel Baby's show "Lost in Paradise" (November 23 show). She played a superb rockabilly record that I wasn't familiar with: "Cranberry Blues" by Robert Williams and the Groovers, a song about the Cranberry Crisis of 1959. I started researching the crisis, and that led to this post.

http://lostinparadise.podomatic.com/





The herbicide aminotriazole, introduced in the mid 1950's, had been effective in controlling weeds in cranberry bogs. In 1958, in spite of concerns about the possible carcinogenicity of ATZ, it was approved by the Department of Agriculture, but only for use after the end of the growing season,, so as to avoid contamination of the cranberry crop. Most of the 1957 crop turned out to be contaminated, and was voluntarily taken off the market. I'm not sure what happened with the 1958 crop.

The problem was not resolved, as a small percentage of the 1959 cranberry crop from Washington and Oregon was contaminated. Following the advice of the FDA, Arthur Flemming, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, recommended against eating cranberries from these states. This of course was really bad timing for the cranberry industry, as it was close to Thanksgiving. Since it was diffiult to determine the origin of cranberries, sales dropped nationwide. Many supermarket chains refused to carry cranberries. This had a long term impact on the cranberry industry , and it took a long time for it to fully recover.

This crisis occurred during the early stages of the 1960 presidential campaign, and candidates Kennedy and Nixon did their part in demonstrating the safety of cranberries; Nixon by eating lots of cranberry sauce and Kennedy by drinking several glasses of cranberry juice in front of reporters.

These articles discuss the cranberry crisis.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091124/OPINION/911240321/-1/OPINION07

http://www.library.wisc.edu/guides/agnic/cranberry/faq.htm

There is an extensive discussion of the crisis in"A Scientist at the White House", the diary kept by President Eisenhower's science adviser George Bogdan Kistiakowsky. Sorry for the long URL.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ImUIKBl5hlgC&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=cranberry+crisis+1959&source=bl&ots=OhpFrx0CLL&sig=u1JvRDpH-tB5CRO06bZ2xSNEIVA&hl=en&ei=6R0US_C8J8PZnAePy4XOAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CB0Q6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=cranberry%20crisis%201959&f=false

The November 23, 1959 issue of Life magazine had an interesting article on the crisis, with some great photos that I can't embed, including one of "Secretary Flemming" being carried to an ambulance after being hung in effigy.

http://books.google.com/books?id=XlUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=cranberry+crisis+1959&source=bl&ots=R0PYPXIHQQ&sig=GUcKe7RnuMa1zZDcN-8K_HJqTEU&hl=en&ei=thoUS-CRHIHdnAep6czCAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBEQ6AEwAjgU#v=onepage&q=cranberry%20crisis%201959&f=false

The Census of Marine Life: bizarre creaturesof the deep

The Census of Marine Life project, scheduled for completion in October 2010, is discovering and cataloging as many species as possible. Five of the fourteen census projects are related to deep sea life. "Deep sea" is defined as below the level which light penetrates, which is about 200 meters. The observed species are located as deep as 5,000 meters (three miles). A total of 17,500 deep sea species have been cataloged so far, of which 5,722 are found below a depth of 1000 meters.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091122161740.htm

Here are some of the most interesting and bizarre species found so far.

A new species of "Dumbo", a finned octopod.




Clione lamacina, a snail found in Arctic and Antarctic waters.




Here is another polar species, Mimonectes sphaericus, a polar crustacean.


http://english.cctv.com/20090916/103799.shtml




The image gallery at the Census of Marine Life website has some great photos, but they can't be downloaded.

http://www.coml.org

An exceptionally strange group of deep sea creatures are members of the Osedax genus (bone-eating tubeworms). They devour whale bones in association with symbiotic bacteria that help in the digestion process.


They are small; their length ranges between 0.2 and 05. millimeters, and live in tubes that they build. Only the females feed on whales, The males live inside the females and feed on yolk contained inside their bodies. One female may contain dozens of males. Osedax may play a major role in carbon recycling in the deep sea.

http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2004/Bone-Eating-Osedax30jul04.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050926082721.htm


Here are two videos on the deep sea projects.

A few interesting film and music clips

I thought I would post few interesting videos I've seen lately.

Eugeniuz Bodo was one of the great stars of Polish cinema in the1930's. He died in a Soviet labor camp in 1943.

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

Here he is in the 1937 Polish film "Pietro Wyzej" (Upstairs).





The quality is pretty poor in places, but this is great!





"Snake Hips" - sung by Sharon Lynn, with Ann Pennington dancing. This is from the 1929 film "Happy Days", which was the second wide screen film ever made. However the wide screen print no longer exists.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020949/






The best known version of "Mack the Knife" (Moriat) was recorded by Bobby Darin in 1958 , but the first recorded version was by Harald Paulsen from 1928. The song is from "Der Dreigrochenoper" (The Threepenny Opera). Paulsen played Mack the Knife in the original 1928 production in Berlin.







http://www.originalsproject.us/

The Originals Project is a great site with lots of information on obscure original versions of songs that later became hits for other performers. There will be a post soon on some very interesting original versions.

Idioglossia - Poto and Cabengo

Secret languages are often developed by siblings. They develop most frequently in identical twins. They typically fade away over time, and disappear by the age of three. However, special circumstances, such as social isolation, can lead to these languages persisting. This phenomenon is known as idioglossia, or cryptophasia.

The best known incidence of idioglossia was the language developed by the identical twins Grace and Virginia Kennedy, who referred to themselves as Poto and Cabengo.

The twins were born in Savannah. Georgia in 1970. They suffered severe convulsions shortly after birth. Although tests showed no brain damage, their father said a neurosurgeon told him it would take years to conclusively determine this.

The family moved to San Diego. Grace and Virginia did not socialize and rarely left the house. They spent most of their time either alone, or with their maternal grandmother, who spoke only German. They spoke very rapidly, and no one else could understand what they were saying. Neither spoke any English at the age of six. Private languages may have their own grammar and syntax, though that is very rare.

Phrases spoken by Virginia and Grace include:

La moa Poto - (here more poto)

Pinit, putatrahletungay (finish, potato salad hungry)

A documentary about the twins, "Poto and Cabengo", was released in 1980. Here is a brief clip.




A combination of speech therapy, psychotherapy, and the work of psycholinguists and speech pathologists helped to decipher the girls language. Over 100 hours of their playtime was taped and analyzed. It turned out that much of their language consisted of mispronounced and garbled English phrases,with a bit of German, that were spoken very rapidly. Most of their speech became somewhat intelligible after being slowed down. Their language contained 30 different words for potato.

Virginia and Grace managed to learn basic English.They were sent to separate schools to help facilitate their learning of English. Their IQ's tested as below average (around 80) but it's exceedingly difficult to tell what their real intelligence is.

According to Wikipedia, Ginny now works on an assembly line,and Grace works at a fast food restaurant.

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

Here's an interesting article on Grace and Virginia

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912582-1,00.html

The abstract of a scholarly article on idioglossia. It mentions that most of what is known about idioglossia is "folk knowledge" and that more scholarly research needs to be done.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED252287&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED252287

Ant Colony Optimization Algorithms

Ant colony optimization algorithms (ACO) are used to solve problems relating to finding optimal paths towards a given goal.

In their search for food, ants wander randomly,and lay down a trail of pheromones while they are returning to their nest after finding food . The pheromones evaporate over time, so that the shorter the path to food, the greater the pheromone density. The pheromones attract other ants, so that what was a random path to food becomes an optimal path, and the ants will travel the shortest possible distance to the food supply. This is an example of "swarm theory", where a group achieves an optimal result even though there is no formal leadership.


This algorithm is applicable to a wide variety of problems, including finding the best landing gate at an airport. and the "traveling salesman"problem in mathematics.

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) originated in the nineteenth century. In its simplest form a salesperson has a number of cities to visit. What is the shortest possible path they can take where all cities are visited, but only once. Additional constraints are sometimes placed on the system such as cost and time.

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

I can't find a non-technical paper of article that discusses this in detail, but here is an important research paper that discusses how the ant colony optimization algorithm provides good solutions to the TSP ,and with some modifications, could provide even better ones.

http://www.idsia.ch/~luca/acs-bio97.pdf

A strategy similar to the ACO was developed by financial analysts at Southwest Airlines to facilitate quicker arrivals and departures of aircraft. The algorithm they developed, based on the fact that pilots looked for the best available landing gate, led to quicker arrivals and departures of aircraft.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0406-planes_trains_and_ant_hills.htm


The ACO has also been used to model military strategies. Scientists at the University of Granada developed several algorithms designed to enable a military unit to achieve the greatest amount of security and speed in achieving their goals. They modeled the battlefields in their research on the ones used in the video game "Panzer General"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091106102658.htm

Here is a simulation of foraging ants.

http://www.nightlab.ch/antsim.php

The music of Harry Partch

Harry Parch has always been one of my musical heroes, due to his unique and uncompromising vision.

Parch was born in Oakland in 1901 to parents who had been missionaries in China. He was interested in music from an early age, but by the time he was in his late teens, he became disenchanted with traditional Western music. He developed what became a lifelong interest in non-Western music, and in primitive and ancient cultures.

Partch developed a unique system of musical tuning, based on a 43 tone scale rather then the tradition Western twelve tone scale. He also developed a series of handmade instruments to play his music on. Partch thought that this allowed music to more accurately portray the patterns of speech. He valued these instruments for their beauty as well as the music played on them.


Partch ran out of grant money, and spent the depression as a hobo, riding trains around the U.S., and keeping a journal of speech patterns. He frequently converted these into musical patterns, a practice he used throughout his career. Following the depression, help from grants and benefactors enabled him to focus on his music.



Compositions by Partch include "Seventeen Lyrics of Li Po" "Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales", 'The Bewitched" and "And on the Seventh Day the Petals Fell in Petaluma".

The Wikipedia article on Partch:

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


Here is a list of Partch's compositions:

http://www.harrypartch.com/partchworks.htm

Here are three of Partch's instruments:

The Adapted Viola, a viola with a cello neck.

http://www.corporeal.com/instbro/inst13.html




Cloud chamber bowls - these were originally designed to be used in devices to detect ionized particles and study nuclear reactions.






The Boo (bamboo marimba) - this can play all the chromatic pitches in Partch's 43 note scale.

The two photos above show some of the instruments in the possession of Newband , a microtonal band, and artists in residence at the Harry Partch Institute at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Dean Drummond, the co-director of Newband has legal custody of the original Partch instruments.


http://www.newband.org/

Here is Partch demonstrating some of his instruments



Most of Partch's music was intended to accompany dance, theater, or film. Here is Newband's staging of "Daphne of the Dunes",.




Here is "Barstow", Partch's 1941 composition. The text comes from grafitti that Partch saw on a
highway railing.





This is an excellent BBC documentary on Partch.

Happy Halloween! - horror films from the silent era.

For my Halloween post I thought I would focus on some early horror films.

Here's a good introduction the the genre.

http://www.filmsite.org/horrorfilms.html

Many of you may be familiar with the French director Georges Melies, whose pioneering films include "A Trip to the Moon" (1902). His directed the very first horror film, "Le Manior du Diable",from 1896.

Here is a brief excerpt, with modern narration.




Three more by Melies:











The first version of Frankenstein was filmed by Edison Studios in 1910. The quality is poor in places, There is only one known surviving copy, and it remained unseen by all except for its owner for many years.



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0001223/

Here is F.W. Murnaus's 1922 film "Nosferatu", the first filmed version of the Dracula legend. Murnau was successfully sued by Bram Stoker's widow for copyright infringement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Murnau





There are several very interesting films from the silent era here.


http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=91D988B577595EA6&page=1



This is a great bibliography of horror films, from 1895-1950

http://www.classichorror.free-online.co.uk/azmovies.htm

I will discuss the Carl Dreyer film "Vampyr" in a separate post on Dreyer.

Martin Gardner turns, 95 - recreational math, flexagons and "The Annotated Alice"

I've always loved the writings of Martin Gardner, who turned 95 this week. He has long been the best known recreational mathematician. He has written on many different topics, but most of his writings focus on puzzles and puzzle solving. He has written over 70 books, including a puzzle and essay collection that was released this month.


Here's a good article on Gardner's career.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20tier.html

A few of Gardner's puzzles.

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/monday-puzzle-martin-gardners-birthday-celebration/


My favorite article by Gardner is a very early one (from 1956) which introduced me to the wonderful world of flexagons. They were invented at Princeton in 1939 by a graduate student, Arthur Stone. A "Flexagon Committee" that included fellow graduate students Richard Feynman, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in physics, and Bryant Tuckerman, was formed.

I first made flexagons with my dad on the kitchen table, but later started making them at school (this was fifth grade) during boring classes. Sometimes I would sell them, and use the money to buy junk food at lunch.

This picture comes from a great, comprehensive site on flexagons.


http://www.flexagon.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=31

The Wikipedia article doesn't provide much information about flexagons, but it does show how to make tetraflexagons and hexaflexigons.

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

There area number of technical articles on flexagons. This one provides a good overview.

http://delta.cs.cinvestav.mx/~mcintosh/comun/gonafle/gonaflex.pdf

There are many videos of flexagons online. This one is silent, but has some pretty nifty flexing.



Gardner's "The Annotated Alice" is terrific. It provides detailed information on the many obscure jokes and references in "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". The "Definitive Edition" contains "The Wasp in the Wig" , a chapter that was left out of "Through the Looking Glass".

Amazon has some interesting editorial reviews of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Alice-Definitive-Lewis-Carroll/dp/0393048470

A Gardner bibliography:

http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/gardner-booklist.html

Zebroids: zorses and zonkeys

I wrote a post a while back about quaggas, a subspecies of zebra that were once thought to be separate species, that became extinct in the nineteenth century. There is an effort underway to "recreate" the quagga through genetic engineering. I thought I would write about some odd and interesting zebra hybrids.

The zorse is a horse-zebra hybrid. It's the offspring of a zebra stallion and horse mare. Like other hybrid equines (such as mules) it is sterile. The offspring of a zebra mare and horse stallion is called a hebra, though there are multiple names for equine hybrids. They are collectively known as zebroids, and are found both in the wild and in captivity.



http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/a-zorse-is-a-horse-of-course/offbeat-news

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-464723/Meet-Eclyse--amazing-zebra-crossing.html

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


Here's a zonkey.


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

Here is another zonkey, referred to here as a zenky.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/28/1062050609625.html






A list of hybrid equines:

http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hybrid-equines.htm