Today I found out the difference between a donkey and a mule.
Put simply, a donkey is the descendant of the African wild ass (of which there are only about 500 left in the wild today). Donkeys are a different species than a horse, but in the same family. They were originally bred in Egypt or Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago.
Mules, on the other hand, are a cross between a female horse and a male donkey or “jack” (hence the word “jackass”). In contrast, a male horse and a female donkey bred together produces a “hinny”; the name coming from the fact that a female donkey is called a “jenny”, bred with a h-orse. The offspring of this breeding is very similar to a mule, as you might expect, though generally slightly smaller, which is thought to be because of the smaller womb in a donkey over a horse.