I Photographed A Zorse – The Hybrid I Thought Would Only Exist In My Fantasy
Last year, I met an animal which I thought would only exist in my fantasy: a zorse, the hybrid between a zebra stallion and a horse mare. Zuri, the mare you see in the photo, was only 1.5 years old and although I’ve been working as a photographer with horses for over 6 years, this was different from anything I’ve known so far.
The wild instinct is very strong in zorses and I had to rethink a lot of techniques to get the animal’s attention during the session. While a horse is a typical flight animal, a zorse is ready to fight. A horse is curious, a zorse doesn’t want to be bothered, which makes the interaction during photo sessions a challenge. In Africa, zorses are often bred to be trekking animals to transport people and goods through tough landscapes. They are strong, light-feed and very resistant to illness – they combine the best features of both a zebra and a horse.
Outside Africa, where I met this particular zorse, these hybrids are very rare and usually bred for simple lifestyle and visual reasons. Zuri is a sweet mare, with a flicker of wilderness in her eyes and I wanted to create photos that express the proud exotic miracle she is.
More info: Instagram
Proud crossbreed between a zebra and a horse
In the European jungle…
Do you see her marks? Just beautiful!
A sweet mare, as you can see from the soft look on her face
Making of
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It's kind of surprising how few chromosomes zebras have, compared with horses. It almost seem to point to a genetic bottleneck far back in time, perhaps even a near-extinction.
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It's kind of surprising how few chromosomes zebras have, compared with horses. It almost seem to point to a genetic bottleneck far back in time, perhaps even a near-extinction.
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