Zebra + horse = zorse

 

It has to be the ultimate zebra crossing. Eclyse the zorse – or zebroid – is striking proof of how an offspring inherits genes from both parents – which in her case was a male zebra and a female horse.

The result is shown in her amazing coat which looks like a zebra’s that has been partly covered in white paint.

While most zebra-horse crossbreeds have stripes across their entire body, Eclyse has only two such patches, on her face and rump.

The 1-year-old was born after her mother, Eclipse, was taken from her German safari park home to visit a ranch in Italy.

There she was left to roam freely with other horses and a number of zebras. One zebra called Ulysses took a shine to her and there was some horseplay.

When she arrived home to Germany, Eclyse’s mother surprised her keepers by giving birth to a baby zorse.

Eclyse has become a major attraction at her home safari park at , near the German border with Holland.

In Africa, horses and zebras are often crossbred and used as trekking animals. Hybrids are an interesting curiosity. The mule is perhaps the most famous cross – a combination between a horse and a donkey – and an animal of economic importance because it is a hard worker.

Hybrids are not easy to create, however. The mating pair’s different number of chromosomes – the “packets” of DNA in each cell – makes a pregnancy hard to achieve.

A horse has 64 chromosomes; the zebra has 44. The zorse that results from cross-breeding will have a number of chromosomes that is somewhere in between.

The zorse can only result where the sire is the zebra. “The smaller number of chromosomes has to be on the male side,” said Lesley Barwise-Munro, a veterinary surgeon in Alnwick, Northumberland, and a spokeswoman for the British Equine Veterinary Association.

“If it had been the other way around there would have been no pregnancy. It’s how nature works.

“And hybrids were invariably sterile,” she added.  

Always Have Hope

I hope that I will always be for each person
what he or she needs me to be.

I hope that each person’s death will diminish me,
but that fear of my own will never diminish my joy of life. 

I hope that my love for those whom I like will never lessen
my love for those whom I do not.

I hope that another person’s love for me will never
be a measure of my love for him or her.

I hope that everybody will accept me as I am,
but that I never will.

I hope that I will always ask for  from others,
but will never need to be asked for my own . . .

I hope that I will always recognize my limitations,
but that I will construct none. 

I hope that loving will always be my goal,
but that love will never be my idol.

I hope that everyone will always have hope.

Prayer for Those Whose Loved Ones Are Missing

The following Prayer is not only for missing Madeleine, but for all those whose loved ones are missing.  

I was kindly allowed to use this post by Suzy at Suzy’s Prayer Diary. 

I found this on Beliefnet ….

Loving God, the hope and protector of all humankind; bless those whose loved ones are missing. The agony of not knowing whether someone is living or dead is a daily torture. The uncertainty of life’s future relationships hangs in limbo. Hope rides a roller coaster. Yet each day must be lived. Give unto your people the blessing of your grace that they may face each day with courage and hope. Guard their families from further danger and harm and hold them in the blessing of your love. Amen.

source: Adapted from “Prayers of Our Hearts”
© 1991 Vienna Cobb Anderson.

Posted in Missing.
Click here for Suzy’s post for today on Madeleine
Click here for the original article posted on Suzy’s Prayer Diary.

Missing Maddie – No Breakthrough 29th June

Hopes are fading of a breakthrough in the hunt for missing Madeleine McCann after it was reported that an Italian arrested in Spain had no connection with the child’s disappearance.

Spanish police will continue to question a couple suspected of trying to extort money from the parents of Madeleine McCann.

Police said the Portuguese woman and Italian man were suspected of trying to swindle the McCanns by offering the parents information about the missing four-year-old.

But the pair who were arrested by anti-kidnap group UDEV in the town of Sotogrande, are thought to have no connection to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa of the Portuguese Policia said his officers accompanied the Spanish authorities on the arrest because of the potential link to Madeleine. “Up until this point we haven’t found any connection, but we are waiting to see what develops,” he said.

A Spanish police statement said: “Police began to investigate them after getting information that they had tried to contact Madeleine’s parents to collect a reward.” 

The Italian was arrested on an international warrant issued from France, where he was wanted for alleged association with a crime group.

A Spanish police spokeswoman said the warrant itself had nothing to do with the McCann case.

The Portuguese woman was detained because of her association with the Italian man, the spokeswoman said.

It is now 57 days since the little girl was snatched from her bed as she slept in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

Missing Maddie: Man held over kidnapping 28th June

An Italian man has been arrested in Spain suspected of possible links with the kidnap of missing Madeleine McCann, according to reports by the Spanish El Pais website.

The website also reported that the Italian man was trying to extort money from the McCanns in return for information about their daughter.

Spanish police were said to have arrested the man near the southern port city of Algeciras, according to the report.  However, police refused to make a statement about the incident and its relationship to the disappearance of Maddie.

A local journalist interviewed by Sky News said a Spanish police source had told her a Portuguese woman had been arrested too.

A Spanish police spokeswoman confirmed an Italian man had been arrested on the Andalucian coast, under an international arrest warrant issued by France.

She said the arrest warrant had nothing to do with the case of Madeleine McCann, but added police were now looking into possible links between the man and the kidnapping.

In Lisbon, Police Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa confirmed that Portuguese police had been involved in an operation that led to the arrest of two people in Spain on Thursday but no connection was found to Madeleine’s disappearance.

“Two people were arrested but no links were found to the Madeleine case,” he said.

It is 56 days since four-year-old Maddie was snatched from her bed as she slept in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

Her parents Gerry and Kate McCann have stayed in Portugal since she disappeared, insisting they will not leave until she is found.