Do wild animals ever cross breed, even across species?

zbeckabee

Aside from a few musicians that I have known: There are many modern examples of hybridization in nature, some forced, some natural. Mules are bred by humans from horses and donkeys, are completely sterile, and represent an evolutionary dead-end. But there are other species-crossings that do just fine, such as offspring of the notoriously promiscuous oak tree species, which hybridize so often species-namers commonly joke about not being able to keep up. Still, cross-species matings usually result in sickness or sterility, if the offspring get that far --many naturally abort. Hybrid offspring that are fertile but sick or weak will not be able to compete with the purer offspring of either parent in passing on their genes to future generations. As a result, many evolutionary biologists have thought hybridization to be evolutionarily unimportant. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030808081854.htm May 10 06, 8:31 AM

zbeckabee

Here's a little info on Hybrids: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid May 10 06, 8:33 AM

myjoey

Interspecies breeding (sometimes called cross breeding1) is the act of creating offspring from two different species.Most cross breeding occurs between animals in the same Genus. May 10 06, 8:36 AM

myjoey

http://everything2.org/index.pl?node_id=1528852 May 10 06, 8:39 AM

Brainyblonde

Hybridisation in the wild: It is extremely rare for any wild animal to breed with one from another species. For instance, in the wild the Grant's and Thompson's gazelle live together happily in mixed herds. The species are very alike and only experts are able to discern one from the other. Despite this there are no known instances of these gazelle interbreeding. The domestic dog will mate indiscriminately with another breed, but wild dog breeds, including wolves, foxes and coyotes, mate only within their own species. In the early 1900s, Indian natives regularly spoke of an animal they knew as the doglas. It was claimed to be a hybrid between the leopard and the tiger. Though there were some large leopards in the area with striping on their abdomens, it was never established that the native claim accounted for the source of this odd colouring. Throughout Mexico and South America there is a widespread belief that natural hybrids occur between pumas and jaguars, but animal biologists have been unable to find evidence which would substantiate this. All crosses between wild and domestic animals are automatically considered to be domesticated. This includes animals like the beefalo (American bison x domestic cattle), Zorses (zebra x horses), zonkeys (zebra x donkeys), the wolf dog, and the various small wild cat x domestic cat hybrids. http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/hybridisation.html May 10 06, 9:10 AM

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