Pied Pony!

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

It has to do with chromosome counts. Some hybrids are a sterile when the counts between species don't match up properly. Other problems can also arise--the Liger has a genetic issue that causes it to grow to enormous size, while the Tigon does not. They're both lion/tiger hybrids, the difference is in which gender parent is the tiger, and which the lion. (Liger = Lion X Tigress, and Tigon = Tiger X Lioness).

However, NOT all hybrids are sterile. That issue can actually be quite complex. Male Ligers and tigons are sterile, but females are NOT--they cannot be bred to each other, but they ARE fertile when bred to either parent species, producing ti-tigons, ti-ligers, li-ligons, or li-ligers.

Interestingly, the classic example of the infertile hybrid, the mule, is not ALWAYS so. While the males are indeed always infertile, there have been documentated cases of fertile female mules, and fertile female hinnies. It's simply quite rare.

In snakes, some surprising and unlikely combinations have proven to be fertile as well. (Corn X Kingsnake crosses). These are particularly astonishing because they don't just cross species lines--they actually cross GENUS lines.

More shocking still, guinea fowl have been hybridized with domestic chickens. In spite of the superficial similarities in appearance and size, these birds are not even in the same FAMILY. To put this into perspective--that would be like crossing a white-tailed deer with a giraffe. To date, no intra-Order hybrids have been identified.

It makes all of those creepy stories about crossing humans with gorillas or chimps a lot more plausible, when you dwell on it. There's no real reason why not....they're certainly a lot more closely related to us than a guinea fowl is to a chicken.

Many other hybrids may also be fertile. Coydogs are fertile, though their fertility seems to be lower in successive generations. (Wolfdogs actually aren't hybrids at all, as it turns out).

It's now known that hybridization is just another one of the tools in evolution's toolbox--it occurs naturally when environmental conditions put compatible animals in close proximity, and one or both have difficulty finding mates of their own species (for example). The polar bears, forced inland to find food due to the shrinking polar ice caps, have been hybridizing with grizzly bears, producing hybrid animals dubbed 'grolers'. This is a natural event caused by climate change, and it's entirely possible that when the polar habitat is no longer suitable for polar bears, they will simply meld back into the grizzly bear population that they originally evolved from, creating a new species that is more similar to the grizzly. Grolers are apparently fertile.

So, far from being a dead end, hybrids are absolutely fascinating bundles of potential.

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Holy cow I didn't know about all of those, and they actually can breed. I forgot my own Granny has a bunch of Turkens= turkeyXchicken and they can breed with the chickens :confused:

It's creepy to think about the hybrid humans....