Horses were once one of the main modes of transportation for humans. According to the current classification of horses, there can be roughly more than 300 breeds of horses.
So many varieties of horses are the kind of horses that don't have stripes on their bodies. You know, modern horses and zebras belonged to the same family 55 million years ago, both derived from the Hyracotherium.
Think about it, if in a cavalry team, everyone else is a tan ordinary horse, and you ride a striped zebra, it is difficult to stand out from the crowd, is not equivalent to having a Lamborghini in ancient times, what a thing worth showing off.
Indeed, because someone tried to do that. In Britain at the beginning of the last century, almost no one thought that zebras could be domesticated, and in the parlance of the time, they felt that zebras were "incurable" wild animals.
The Victorian classification of animals was simple, useful animals and useless animals for humans, useless animals were regarded as unforgivable sins.
But there was one man who did not believe in evil, his name was Lionel Walter Rothschild, a lover of zoology. The reason why he is a lover of zoology, not a zoologist, is that he only collects animal specimens, but does not study them.
His collecting fetish was a fanatic, and he built a private museum for the various specimens he bought from all over the world, including tens of thousands of items. Unlike other private collectors, he also praises his museum for public display.
Back to the topic, he was so "passionate" about wildlife that he felt that zebras were also horses, and the Lyto people transported a few zebras from Africa and built a zebra.
Most outrageously, he also drove his own zebra through the front of Buckingham Palace. This cannot but be suspected that it is a show that makes him famous. Such an operation made him famous all over the world.
What happened afterwards also proved that he was indeed putting on a show, because he never drove the zebra on the road again. Humans have not successfully domesticated zebras for thousands of years, and rothschilds naturally cannot succeed either.
A large part of the reason why the zebra is so difficult to domesticate has to do with where it lives. The horses that humans ride, whether Mongolian, Arabian, or other, have a common feature, coming from Eurasia.
There is a difference between Eurasia and the African continent, that is, there are not many large predators, such as lions, cheetahs, hyenas and the like.
As a threat everywhere, the zebra evolved into a particularly alert, reactive animal that would flee in the face of danger. Even if captured, there is still a strong ability to resist.
A zebra can kick a lion's jaw and even bite other animals. In 2013, in a zoo in the United States, a gazelle was bitten to death by a zebra, and the keeper tried to stop it and bitten several times.
Coupled with a strong vigilance against humans themselves, it is difficult to get close to zebras in the wild.
According to the naturalist Francis Galton, domesticated animals must meet these criteria: they crave a comfortable environment, are easy to care for, and are actively close to humans. In summary, zebras are not a "human-friendly" animal and do not meet the criteria for domestication.
It's not that humans don't want to ride zebras, it's that they can't ride this wild animal...
Source: Bring science home
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