The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two possible first-generation hybrids between them, the mule is easier to obtain and more common than the hinny, which is the offspring of a male horse (a stallion) and a female donkey (a jenny). Mules vary widely in size, and may be of any color seen in horses or donkeys. They are more patient, hardier and longer-lived than horses, and are perceived as less obstinate and more intelligent than donkeys.
Terminology A female mule is called a molly, a Molly mule, or more formally mare mule. A male mule is called a john, John mule, or more formally horse mule. A young male mule is called a mule colt, and a young female is called a mule filly. The donkey used to produce mules is called a mule jack, and a group of mules is often called a pack, though the words barren and span also apply.
History
Breeding of mules became possible only when the range of the domestic horse, which originated in Central Asia in about 3500 BC, extended into that of the domestic ass, which originated in north-eastern Africa. This overlap probably occurred in Anatolia and Mesopotamia in Western Asia, and mules were bred there before 1000 BC. The Hittites, a people of Asia Minor known for their horse-riding skills, held mules in higher esteem than their best horses; the price of a mule was three times that of a good horse. Similarly, mules were seven times as valuable as donkeys to the Sumerians. A painting in the Tomb of Nebamun at Thebes, dating from approximately 1350 BC, shows a chariot drawn by a pair of animals which have been variously identified as onagers, mules or hinnies. Mules were present in Israel and Judah in the time of King David. There are many representations of them in Mesopotamian works of art dating from the first millennium BC. Among the bas-reliefs depicting the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal from the North Palace of Nineveh is a clear and detailed image of two mules loaded with nets for hunting. Homer noted their arrival in Asia Minor in the Iliad in 800 BC.
After the American Revolutionary War, George Washington bred mules at his Virginia estate of Mount Vernon. Often called the "father of the American mule," George Washington sent his donkeys to a multitude of American farms to breed with horses and create mules. Washington found that mules work harder and longer than horses at the same tasks. They also need less food and water than horses. In 1785, he had 132 horses at Mount Vernon. In 1799, there were 27 horses, 20 donkeys, and 63 mules. Before then, mules were not common in the United States, but Washington understood their value, as they were "more docile than donkeys and cheaper to maintain." By the nineteenth century, mules had become favored draught animals on farms and for pulling boats. Their numbers in the US reached 885,000, though they remained more popular in the south than the north. Most notably, twenty-mule teams of eighteen mules and two horses pulled wagonloads of borax out of Death Valley, California from 1883 to 1889. They pulled wagons carrying 10 short tons (9 metric tons) of borax ore during trips to the Borate mines before being replaced by railroads. Mules were used by armies to transport supplies, occasionally as mobile firing platforms for smaller cannons, and to pull heavier field guns with wheels over mountainous trails such as in Afghanistan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. In the second half of the twentieth century, widespread use of mules declined in industrialised countries. The use of mules for farming and for transportation of agricultural products largely gave way to diesel-powered tractors and transportation. The first cloned equine was a mule foal, Idaho Gem, who was cloned by nuclear transfer of cells from foetal material, and was born at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, United States on May 5, 2003. Neither an equid nor a hybrid animal had been cloned before that time. As of 2018, Mexico had the largest population of mules in the world at 3,287,449.
Characteristics
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