A horse and a zebra are essentially the same animal. If europeans could domesticate one, the africans should have been able to domesticate the other. Jared Diamond's argument that Africa lacked domesticatable species was utter nonsense.
Well, not exactly.
A zebra is to a horse what a wolf is to a dog.
Is a wolf a dog?
Well, yes, in a way.
But no, you can't really domesticate them.
Yes, there are people who keep wolves as pets. It's a really bad idea. The wolf, if it grows up as a puppy, can beocme very attached to the household, but it's not a dog. It's a wolf, and it's never very comfortable around other people. It looks like a dog, maybe a husky, but it doesn't ACT like a dog. It's not friendly. It's extremely protective of the family, and it's a dangerous beast inside the house. No, not (necessarily) dangerous to the family it loves and is part of, but dangerous to everybody else, including invited guests.
Wolf puppies are like bear cubs: they are playful and friendly, but grow up to be wolves and bears. Maybe they like YOU, but they do not like our SPECIES; dogs do. Zebras are probably like that.
Jared Diamond's entire book was utter anti-western nonsense, how else could it have won him a Pulitzer?
Thank you, I agree. His attempt at an explanation was laughable.
Actually the two are very different. The only similarities is that they look somewhat similar (in the same way a wolf may look like a dog) and that they share a common evolutionary ancestor.
Male Zebra have fighting fangs (yep, you read that right). They are extremely aggresive and are quite adept at biting (a zebra that is trying to fight off other males so it can mate, or one that is fending off a predator, does much more than a horse does ....much more than flashing hooves and neighing ....think flashing hooves and slashing teeth). While such tactics are nothing to a lion they can give a person sufficient body alteration to spawn instant conversations at a thousand Christmas parties and bar outings.
There was a movie called 'Sheena: Queen of the Jungle' (your typical 1980's b-flick about some Tarzan-esque woman who can speak to animals and all that jazz), and in it Sheena was riding a Zebra. Well, it was actually a painted horse. They tried Zebra, but they quickly discovered it was far more prudent to take the time to paint a horse rather than risking losing the arm of their leading lady.
Comparing a zebra and a horse is like comparing a highschool amateur wrestler with a Ukranian combat Sambo master ....they are both grapplers, but they are also several light years apart.
Am I saying Zebra cannot be tamed? No! Any animal can be 'tamed' to some extent. It is just that the comparative risks between taming even the wildest stallion (and there are risks, especially when a fool and a wild horse come together) versus trying to tame your standard Zebra (PARTICULARLY the males) is quite substantial. A bucking bronco and a biting zebra are at two very different pay grades.