• Question: can animals inter breed?

    Asked by terimater to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Good question.

      Yes, animals can inter breed but it doesn’t happen very often between different species that aren’t closely related.

      It happens more often between different subspecies of the same species, like between the Bengal and the Siberian tiger, or between species that are quite closely related like a lion and a tiger, or a horse and a zebra.

      When animals interbreed, the offspring is known as a ‘hybrid’. Hybrid animals are nearly always infertile, meaning that they can’t mate themselves. That keeps the two species distinct and stops them merging into one. They’re infertile because they can’t make gametes (egg and sperm cells) because they have an odd number of chromosomes. For example, donkeys have 62 chromosomes, horses have 64, but if they breed their hybrid offspring (a mule or a hinnie) has 63.

      I remember when I was doing the zoology modules for my degree I had to learn about this, and there were some good photos of strange hybrids on Wikipedia. Here are a few I’ve found:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebroid
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly-polar_bear_hybrid
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiglon
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholphin

      I love the names they’ve been given too 🙂 Zonkey…

    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I knew this one too but seem silly repeating everything gemma just said, so here’s a video of Liger cubs…they’re so damn cute-I want one!

    • Photo: Akshat Rathi

      Akshat Rathi answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I knew about this but I must thank Gemma and Judith for the excellent links. Quite enjoyed them. 🙂

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