Mule becomes Moroccan celebrity after giving birth

A Moroccan widow and her 14-year-old mule have become unlikely celebrities after the animal gave birth to a foal.

Local superstition around the village of Oulmes, 50 miles south of Fez, equates an animal that should be sterile giving birth with the end of the world.

But now, Mrs Houlami, her mule and the foal have trotted into the annals of veterinary science.

A vet, Gigi Kay, reports the case in a letter to the Veterinary Record. She works for the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad (Spana) and was called in a few days after the birth because of the owner's concern.

Blood tests analysed at the vet school in Rabat revealed that the foal, which looked neither like a baby donkey nor a juvenile mule, was the product of his mother's congress with a donkey.

Mules, the offspring of male donkeys and female horses, are typically sterile. Mrs Houlami had no idea her animal was even pregnant said Ms Kay.

She had taken it on the regular 15-mile trip to the souk or market. "When they go to the souk, the animals are left to their own devices. We know the father was a donkey but we don't know which one so there is going to be no paternity suit."

Neither animal has a name although Spana officials call the foal the Miracle Mule or 2M.

In the four months since the remarkable birth, the equine stars have appeared in local newspapers and on television.

When Ms Kay first saw the mother mule, "she was nervous as if apologising but the second time I saw her, she was becoming quite a celebrity. I think Moroccans are delighted".

The foal is only the fourth recorded case of a female mule giving birth - one was reported in 1985 in the US and two others were reported in China in 1988.