ALIEN ZOO

KARL SHUKER mourns an extinct but now identified equid and welcomes mantids to the UK

LET’S ALL DO THE KUNGA

Depicted in Mesopotamian art and referred to in cuneiform writings dating back 4,500 years from the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East, the long-vanished kunga was a powerful horse-like creature that was used as a draft animal to pull war wagons into battle and royal chariots during ceremonial parades. However, it has long been a puzzle to archæologists and zoologists alike, because the domestic horse was not introduced and the Syrian wild ass , both of which were smaller and far less sturdy than the kunga – so what was it? Unlike many mystery beasts, there are actually physical, tangible remains of the kunga in existence, because as it was such a valuable, useful work beast, specimens were sometimes buried alongside persons of high social status, with several kunga skeletons having been discovered at the northern Syrian burial complex of Umm el-Marra. Unfortunately, however, the bones of kungas, donkeys, wild asses, and horses as well as mules and other equine hybrids, all look very similar, so although kunga bones have been examined, no conclusive identification of what the kunga actually was has ever resulted – until now. In January 2022, published research in the journal revealed that DNA samples had been extracted from the bones of one buried kunga specimen from Umm el-Marra and subjected to comparative sequencing analyses with other equine forms. These analyses confirmed that it was a hybrid – the offspring of an interspecific mating between a male Syrian wild ass and a female domestic donkey. Because such matings would not occur naturally, and as the kunga, being a hybrid, was almost certainly sterile (just like the mule), it was therefore evident that in order to perpetuate the kunga strain, male wild asses were being deliberately captured and mated with female domestic donkeys on a regular basis 4,500 years ago in the Fertile Crescent – thereby making the kunga the earliest recorded human-engineered hybrid. But when the horse was introduced here 500 years later, the kunga was no longer needed, so the breeding of it ceased, and this remarkable creature vanished from existence. Of course, one could ask why, now that the kunga’s precise hybrid nature is finally known, scientists are not excitedly proclaiming “Let’s resurrect it!” by once again mating male Syrian wild asses with female domestic donkeys. The answer is as tragic as it is simple – no such restoration can take place because the kunga’s paternal progenitor, the Syrian wild ass, is itself now extinct, as a result of over-hunting, with the last two known specimens both dying in 1927. So unless the kunga and/or the Syrian wild ass can be recreated via genetic means in the laboratory one day, the kunga is doomed to remain nothing more than a collection of bones, a few mentions in cuneiform script, and some images in ancient art. RIP.