Up north they say, " when Hell Freezes over", Down here it's, "when a Mule Mare Foals"

[Wiley50]

I was driving back from "doctor visit day" when I heard on NPR a story about a female mule who birthed a foal.
Wish I had a link, but I swear I heard a story on NPR on this.

EDIT: Here's the Link thanks to Americat: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12260255

A Mule is the offspring resulting from a male donkey mating with a female horse

A horse has 44 chromosomes
A donkey has 42 chromosomes
and
a mule has 43 chromosomes and IS ALWAYS STERILE

Until Now

Evidently a couple who own a Colorado outfitting company and breeds their own pack mules
awoke one morning recently to find that which conventional knowledge says can't happen:

One of their female mules had had a baby

They don't know yet what happened and are trying to find out

Blows my mind

[tabasco]

1. Like the dude said in Jurassic Park:

"Nature will find a way!"

[InvisibleTouch]

2. The offspring of a male horse and a female donkey, however...

...is called a hinny, and I believe some have been known to be fertile.

[burrowowl]

5. Thank you, I have been trying

to remember hinny. NPR probably confused a hinny with a mule.

[Wiley50]

7. These folks say they've been breeding mules for several generations

and know that this female mule was no hinny

They own the mare she came from

[burrowowl]

3. I am trying to remember

the name of the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey, do you know?

[mmonk]

4. Sounds like an evolutionary discovery to fit the times.

[amerikat]

6. link here

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12260255

[Wiley50]

8. Gee Thanks! Credibility found me! n/t

[dweller]

10. i heard the story earlier also, and hope it a good sign for

:kick:


dp

[Wiley50]

9. From lthe link it seems I got the chromasome numbers wrong.

Like I said, I was driving when I heard this

[pitohui]

11. born and bred in the south, and we say "when hell freezes over"

never heard when a mule mares foals, crap, i don't think i could even say that, it stumbles off the tongue if you ask me

[dweller]

12. ...

:rofl:


dp

[Wiley50]

13. I was raised here in TN

and worked for the county Vet all during high school

In Columbia Tennessee, "The Mule Center of the World"
Seems that we we're the Detroit of the late 1800's
We still have a Mule Day Celebration every spring

http://muletown.com/

It is popular with authentic old TN farmers

[Lisa]

15. besides, it doesn't give you the opportunity to say "hell" out loud

I know that I can get away with "when hell freezes over" or "a snowball's chance in hell" in front of my mom, but not when I just use it as an expletive.

[Wiley50]

14. My Hometown

http://muletown.com/

[JVS]

16. Wouldn't a female horse's womb be better put to use gestating a horse?

I always thought the horse was the male parent

[Wiley50]

17. In the Equestrian World

Horses are the cars, sometimes racecars

Mules are trucks, bulldozers and tractors

[Az]

18. Here in Michigan Hell freezes over every winter

I have photos around here somewhere.

[knitter4democracy]

21. Yup! It's an odd winter when it doesn't.

In our state, we have Paradise, Eden, and Hell, so one year, instead of going to the prom, a few friends and I did the Dante Trip through Michigan. Much fun was had. ;)

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Check out the wiki on "hinny" -- interesting stuff!

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

Got interested in the topic from Keegans "History of Warfare", wherein he discusses the "cavalry revolution", and the differences among various equiids.

"Female hinnies and mules are not customarily neutered, and may or may not go through estrus. Female mules have been known to produce offspring when mated to a purebred horse or donkey, though this is extremely uncommon. Since 1527 there have been more than sixty documented cases of foals born to female mules around the world. In contrast, according to the ADMS, there is only one known case of a female hinny doing so, and she produced a mix which has, thus far, only been documented once among the offspring of female mules:

* Mule mares pass along 100% of their maternal genes to their offspring, rather than a mix. Since a mule's mother is a horse, as a rule mule mares pass genes which are 100% horse to their foals. Thus, a mule mare bred to a horse stallion will produce a foal which is 100% horse, with no donkey genes at all.

* In China in 1981, a hinny mare proved fertile with a donkey stallion. Scientists expected a 100% donkey foal if the female hinny had passed on her maternal chromosomes the same way as female mules do. However, when the Chinese hinny was bred to a donkey jack, she produced "Dragon Foal," who resembles a donkey with mule-like features. Dragon Foal's chromosomes and DNA tests confirmed that she was a previously undocumented combination, not 50% donkey, from her donkey father, and 50% horse, from her hinny mother. Instead of each gene pair being donkey-horse, with one left over, Dragon Foal has a combination of gene pairs that are donkey-horse and donkey-donkey, with one left over. Her hinny mother passed along a combination of horse and donkey genes.

* In Morocco in 2003, a mule mare bred to a donkey stallion produced a male foal that was 75% donkey and 25% horse, rather than the expected 50%/50% if the mule mare had passed on her maternal chromosones, which are 100% horse, in the usual way. DNA testing revealed the Moroccan foal is a mixed karyotype hybrid like the Chinese hinny offspring, Dragon Foal. This means that, unlike regular hinnies, whose 63 chromosomes consist of 31 pairs that are horse-donkey with one left over, the Morocco colt has about 23 pairs of chromosomes that are donkey-donkey, eight pairs that are horse-donkey, and one left over.

* Because of the mix of gene pairs in the Moroccan foal, it's unknown whether Dragon Foal's genetic oddity is due to her mother being a hinny rather than a mule, or if there is some other factor that applies equally to Dragon Foal in China and the 2003 colt in Morocco.
"

[kenny blankenship]

20. Why don't religious nuts get something on their several states' ballots to stop all this?

Clearly it's contrary to Nature's design and an affront to the Creator, right?
Maybe we could have a Constitutional Amendment on it, a Defense of Species Integrity act or similar?

Yet I've never once heard a nutter object to the existence of mules, mule-donkey crosses, hybrid tomatoes, seedless grapes, or other such abominations. Apparently God is only interested in the naughty bits of naked apes.