Editing Mule (section)

== History ==
[[File:Rhyton en forme de tête d'équidé01.JPG|thumb|Early fifth century BC Greek [[rhyton]] (cup) in the shape of the head of a mule, made by [[Brygos]]]]
Breeding of mules became possible only when the range of the domestic horse, which originated in [[Central Asia]] in about {{val|3500|u=BC}}, extended into that of the domestic ass, which originated in north-eastern Africa. This overlap probably occurred in [[Anatolia]] and [[Mesopotamia]] in Western Asia, and mules were bred there before {{val|1000|u=BC}}.{{r|cabi|p=37}}

The Hittites, a people of Asia Minor known for their horse-riding skills, held mules in higher esteem than their best horses. The price of a mule was three times that of a good horse for the Hittites. Similarly, mules were seven times as valuable as donkeys to the Sumerians.<ref name=":2" />

A painting in the [[Tomb of Nebamun]] at [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]], dating from approximately {{val|1350|u=BC}}, shows a chariot drawn by a pair of animals which have been variously identified as [[onager]]s,{{r|bm}} mules{{r|cabi|p=37}} or hinnies.{{r|juliet|p=96}} Mules were present in [[Israel and Judah]] in the time of [[David|King David]].{{r|cabi|p=37}} There are many representations of them in [[Mesopotamian art|Mesopotamian]] works of art dating from the first millennium BC. Among the [[bas-relief]]s depicting the [[Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal]] from the North Palace of [[Nineveh]] is a clear and detailed image of two mules loaded with nets for hunting.{{r|juliet|p=96|bm2}}

[[Homer]] noted their arrival in Asia Minor in the ''[[Iliad]]'' in 800 BC.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Homer, Iliad, Book 23, line 93 |author= |work=perseus.tufts.edu |date= |access-date=12 October 2022 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D93 |quote=mules |archive-date=13 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013140305/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134:book%3D23:card%3D93 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Mula et Asinus 1578.jpg|thumb|Engraving from 1578, ''Mule and Ass'']]
Mules contributed to the development of the Americas when the Italian explorer for Spain, [[Christopher Columbus]] introduced donkeys and horses to the continent during his expeditions in 1495. Bringing four male and two female donkeys in addition to horses allowed for the production of mules, which assisted the Spanish in their conquest of the continent. The defeat of the [[Aztecs]], for example, opened up Mexico as a mule breeding ground, and the presence of mules in military operations and watch duties soon became commonplace.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=History of the Mule |url=https://www.mulemuseum.org/history-of-the-mule.html |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=American Mule Museum |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:20 Mule Team in Death Valley.jpg|thumb|A 20-mule team in Death Valley, California in the 1880s]]
[[George Washington]] bred mules at his [[Mount Vernon]] Estate in America. Often called the “father of the American mule,” George Washington sent his donkeys to a multitude of American farms to breed with horses and create mules. Washington found that mules work harder and longer than horses at the same tasks. They also need less food and water than horses. At the time, they were not common in the United States, but Washington understood their value, as they were "more docile than donkeys and cheaper to maintain."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chernow |first=Ron |title=Washington: A Life |publisher=The Penguin Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-59420-266-7 |location=New York |pages=483–484 |oclc=535490473}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Animals on Washington's Farm {{!}} George Washington's Mount Vernon |url=https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/farming/the-animals-on-george-washingtons-farm |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=www.mountvernon.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=American Mule {{!}} George Washington's Mount Vernon |url=https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/farming/the-animals-on-george-washingtons-farm/father-of-the-american-mule |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=www.mountvernon.org |language=en}}</ref>  

By the nineteenth century, mules had become favored draught animals on farms and for pulling boats. Their numbers in the US reached 885,000, though they remained more popular in the south than the north.<ref name=":2" /> Most notably, the Twenty Mule Teams pulled, often in teams of 20 or more animals, wagonloads of [[borax]] out of [[Death Valley#History|Death Valley]], California from 1883 to 1889. They pulled wagons carrying 10 [[Short ton|short tons]] (9 metric tons) of borax ore during trips to the Borate mines before being replaced by railroads.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Twenty Mule Team Trail, California - American Trails |url=https://www.americantrails.org/resources/twenty-mule-team-trail-california |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=www.americantrails.org}}</ref>

Mules were used by armies to transport supplies, occasionally as mobile firing platforms for smaller cannons, and to pull heavier field guns with wheels over mountainous trails such as in Afghanistan during the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Mule Battery |chapter-url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/amedscd.2013646213/?sp=42&st=image |title=Afghanistan, 1879–80 |lccn=2013646213 }}</ref>

In the second half of the twentieth century, widespread use of mules declined in industrialised countries. The use of mules for farming and for transportation of agricultural products largely gave way to diesel-powered [[tractors]] and transportation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mules are Equines Too {{!}} Richmond Fed |url=https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/econ_focus/2005/winter/feature5_web_exclusive |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=www.richmondfed.org |language=en-us}}</ref>

The first cloned equine was a mule foal, [[Idaho Gem]] who was [[cloned]] by [[nuclear transfer]] of cells from [[Foetus|foetal]] material, and was born at the [[University of Idaho]] in [[Moscow, Idaho]], United States on May 5, 2003. Neither an equid nor a hybrid animal had been cloned before that time.<ref name="er"/><ref name="science"/>

As of 2018, Mexico had the largest population of mules in the world at 3,287,449.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Norris |first1=Stuart L. |last2=Little |first2=Holly A. |last3=Ryding |first3=Joseph |last4=Raw |first4=Zoe |title=Global donkey and mule populations: Figures and trends |journal=PLOS ONE |date=25 February 2021 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=e0247830 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0247830 |doi-access=free |pmid=33630957 |pmc=7906361 |bibcode=2021PLoSO..1647830N }}</ref>