Kunga (equid)
Offspring of a male Syrian wild ass and a female donkey bred in ancient Middle East / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The kunga was a hybrid equid that was used as a draft animal in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia, where it also served as an economic and political status symbol. Cuneiform writings from as early as the mid-third millennium BCE describe the animal as a hybrid but do not provide the precise taxonomical nature of the breeding that produced it. Modern paleogenomics has revealed it to have been the offspring of a female domesticated donkey and a wild male Syrian wild ass (a subspecies of onager). They fell out of favor after the introduction of domesticated horses and mules into the region at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE.
Quick Facts Scientific classification ...
Kunga | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Perissodactyla |
Family: | Equidae |
Tribe: | Equini |
Genus: | Equus |
Species: | |
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