Difference between mule and mule

In the past, horses and donkeys were of great importance as pack animals. The external difference between the two is clearly visible. If there were crossbreeds between the animals, the young were either a mule or a mule.

Mule or mule - what is what?

• Both animals have the same parents: horse and donkey. Only the mother and father roles are distributed differently. A horse mare is the mother of the mule. The father animal is the donkey. It is exactly the opposite with the mule. Here the donkey is the mother and the father is the stallion.
• The second variant is rarer because it is more common for a donkey to cover a mare than for a stallion to be seduced by a donkey. The vast majority of the offspring themselves are not fertile. Mules and donkeys are bred by humans. Mules in particular were and are respected as transport animals.
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• It is said that both hybrids (as the crossbreeds are called) have the best traits of the parents. A mule is strong like a horse and has the surefootedness of a donkey. In addition, the animals are less sensitive to temperature. They tolerate both heat and cold and recover faster after a great deal of strain. Their health is usually more stable than that of horses.
• These properties were not only valued in the past. In mountainous terrain, mules are sometimes better than powerful machines. Even the Bundeswehr uses the “comrade mule” with the mountain hunters in their pack animal company. The animals are bred in Bad Reichenhall. This is where the largest number of mules are in Germany.


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External features - the difference between the two

• There are different opinions about the difference between the two variants. Depending on which source you use, it may be said that mules and mules are not closed on the outside differentiate, another time it is written that the mules are small animals, the mules the bigger. This certainly depends on the respective parent animals. Since the mules, as they are often called, are sterile, they cannot pass on their properties. So there are no breeds of mules and donkeys and therefore no prescribed standard.
• It is typical that the animals have the long ears of the donkey. The tail resembles that of the horse and often the fur too. In the case of an unknown mule, it can only be determined with certainty in the laboratory whether the father was the donkey or the stallion. However, behavior can help. In a mixed herd of horses and donkeys, a mule feels more drawn to the horses, a mule prefers to join the donkeys.
• Mules and mules are also similar in character. They bond very strongly to a person whom they then accept as a leading figure. But first of all this has to win the animal's trust, which is not always easy. Mulis are willing to work, frugal, very intelligent and, unlike horses, do not panic when they are in danger. Perhaps this is where the saying comes from: "A mule runs like a horse, works like an ox and eats like a donkey."