Ben, it might be of some help to go over to www.equinestudies.org, click
on "Knowledge Base", and then click on the "Mammalian Species" button.
This is a free downloadable PDF which is an "upgraded" version of a paper
on Equus caballus published by Robert S. Hoffmann and myself in the
eponymous series of the American Society of Mammalogists. In that paper
you will find zoogeographic maps that show where we think the species
occurred prior to domestication. You will find E. caballus in the
Anatolian peninsula, but you may also find some other things in those maps
and in the accompanying discussion and synonymy that would be useful.
Beyond this, I recommend you try to get a copy of Colin P. Groves'
"Horses, Asses, and Zebras in the Wild," a most useful book published in
(if I recall right) 1974 in Hollywood, Florida. It contains much useful
information on the occurrence of all living species of Equus, with
excellent photographs of each. -- Deb Bennett
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I have been looking into Roman sources (Strabo, Varro) which repeatedly
> refer to the presence of "wild asses" in central Anatolia (Turkey) in
> antiquity.
> Wild donkeys are not present in this region and evidence for hemiones is
> very
> sparse, while the extinct hydruntine was the dominant "ass" at least
> through
> the middle Holocene. Are these authors possibly referring to a very late
> presence of an extinct equid or is there another explanation? Is it
> possible for
> donkeys to go feral? Are there any example of this?
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Benjamin Arbuckle
>
>
>
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