Hybrid: Encyclopedia II - Hybrid - Interspecific hybrids

Hybrid - Interspecific hybrids

Interspecific hybrids are bred by mating two species, normally from within the same genus. The offspring display traits and characteristics of both parents. The offspring of an interspecific cross may be sterile. Sterility is attributed to the different number of chromosomes the two species have, for example donkeys have 62 chromosomes, while horses have 64, mules have 63. Mules and other sterile interspecific hybrids cannot produce viable gametes because the extra chromosome cannot make a homologous pair at meiosis, meiosis is disrupted and viable sperm and eggs are not formed.

Hybrids are often named by the portmanteau method, combining the names of the two parent species. For example, a zeedonk is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. Since the traits of hybrid offspring often vary depending on which species was mother and which was father, it is traditional to use the father's species as the first half of the portmanteau. For example, a liger is a cross between a male lion and a female tiger, while a tigon is a cross between a male tiger and a female lion.

Some animal interspecies hybrids are:

• Mule, a cross of female horse and a male donkey.
• Hinny, a cross between a female donkey and a male horse.
  A "Zeedonk", a zebra/donkey hybrid
• Zeedonk or zonkey, a zebra/donkey cross.
• Zorse or zebroid, a zebra/horse cross
• Zony/zetland, a zebra/pony cross ("zony" is a generic term; "zetland" is specifically a hybrid of the Shetland pony breed with a zebra)
• Dzo, zo or yakow: a cross between a domestic cow/bull and a yak. See also Bovid hybrids.
• Beefalo/cattalo, a cross of an American Bison and a domestic cow. This is a fertile breed, although the two species are in different genera (Bison and Bos, respectively). See also Bovid hybrids.
• Zubron, a hybrid between Wisent (European Bison) and domestic cow.
• Hybrids between sheep and goat, such as the Toast of Batswana .
• Hybrids between black bears, brown bears, Kodiak and polar bears ursinae hybrids.
• Wolfdog, the cross between a domestic dog and a Wolf. Fertile Canid hybrids occur between coyotes, wolves, dingos, jackals and domestic dogs. Dogs and wolves may be considered the same species, making wolfdogs a non-hybrid.
• Hybrids between spotted owls and barred owls
• Ligers and Tigons (crosses between a Lion and a Tiger) and other panthera hybrids. Various other wild cat crosses are known involving the Lynx, Bobcat, Leopard, Serval, etc (Felid hybrids).
• Hybrids between the domestic cat and wild cat species. The domestic cat, African wild cat and European wildcat may be considered variant populations of the same species (F libyca), making such crosses non-hybrids.
• Congolese Spotted Lion
• Cama, a cross between a Camel and a Llama, also an intergeneric hybrid.
• Wolphin, a fertile but very rare cross between a False Killer Whale and a Bottlenose Dolphin.
• A fertile cross between an albino King Snake and an albino Corn Snake.
• At Chester Zoo in England, a cross between African elephant (male) and Indian elephant (female). The calf was named Motty. It died of gut infection after a few days.
• Cagebird breeders sometimes make hybrids between species of finch, such as goldfinch x canary.

Links to more hybrid animals, or more specific details:

• Amazing Animals
• Hybrid Mammals

Some plant hybrids include:

• Leyland Cypress, a hybrid between Monterey Cypress and Nootka Cypress.
• Loganberry, a hybrid between raspberry and blackberry.
• London Plane, a hybrid between Oriental Plane and American Plane (American Sycamore).
• Tangelo, a hybrid of a mandarin orange and a pomelo or a grapefruit which may have been developed in Asia about 3,500 years ago.
• Triticale, a wheat-rye hybrid.
• Wheat, Most modern and ancient wheat breeds are themselves hybrids.

Hybrids should not be confused with chimaeras such as the chimera between sheep and goat known as the geep.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Interspecific hybrids", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki