Hinny

Did You Know?

• Many supposed examples of the jumart, thought to be a hybrid between a horse and a cow in European folklore, were found to be hinnies.
• According to most reports, hinnies are sterile and are not capable of reproduction.
• The male hinny can mate but has testicles that will only produce malformed spermatozoa.

Description

A hinny is the hybrid offspring of a stallion and a female donkey, known as a jenny. This makes it the opposite cross of a mule, which comes from a male donkey and a mare. Like the mule, the hinny benefits from hybrid vigour. In both hybrids, the front half and head generally take after the father, while the rear and tail resemble the mother. Hinnies are usually smaller than mules, with shorter ears and a lighter head, and their tail has a tassel like a donkey’s. The physical differences between hinnies and mules are partly due to genomic imprinting, a form of epigenetic inheritance. Even though their nuclear genomes are the same, hinnies and mules have different temperaments, which is also thought to result from imprinted genes.