Earliest known human-made hybrid animal

A donkey-like animal that was highly prized by Mesopotamian elites might be the earliest known hybrid animal bred by humans. Researchers analysed the genome of these ‘kungas’, found buried alongside early Bronze Age royals in what is now Syria. The animals were the offspring of a female donkey (Equus africanus asinus) and a male Syrian wild ass (Equus hemionus hemippus), sometimes called a hemippe. The finding supports cuneiform texts that depict kungas as the product of complex animal husbandry programmes.