Get free YouTube views, likes and subscribers
Get Free YouTube Subscribers, Views and Likes

Why Can't Mules Have Babies?

Follow
MinuteEarth

Hybrid animals are infertile because of the way their sex cells form. But sometimes, life finds a way.

FYI: We try to leave jargon out of our videos, but if you want to learn more about this topic, here are some handy keywords to get your googling started:
Hybrid organisms: The offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera.
Mitosis: A process of cell division that produces copies of the original cell.
Meiosis: A process of cell dividion that produces new daughter cells with half the chromosome number of the original cell.
Sex cell, or gamete: a cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization (conception) in organisms that sexually reproduce.
Hemiclonal transmission: The rare occurence in which only maternal DNA gets passed along during the creation of sex cells.

Species featured in this video:
Mule, is the offspring of a male donkey (jack) and a female horse (mare)
Liger, is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a female tiger (Panthera tigris)
Zonkey, is the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. Zebra hybrids are generally known as zebroids
Beefalo, also known as cattalo, is the offspring of a domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and an American buffalo (Bison bison)
Cama, is the offspring of a male dromedary camel and a female llama.
___________________________________________

Credits (and Twitter handles):
Script Writer: David Goldenberg (@dgoldenberg)
Script Editor: Emily Elert (@eelert)
Video Illustrator: Chad Geran
Video Director: Emily Elert (@eelert)
Video Narrator: Emily Elert (@eelert)
With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Ever Salazar, Omkar Bhagat, Peter Reich, Rachel Becker
Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder:   / drschroeder  

Image Credits: Liger Hercules Ed Quinn
https://goo.gl/A8zgxO

Zonkey Flickr user Leogirly4life
https://goo.gl/QAcza0

Cama TaylorLlamas.com
http://goo.gl/YCY3Zd

Beefalo Noah's Ark Animal
Sanctuary
http://www.noahsark.org/
_________________________________________

Like our videos?
Subscribe to MinuteEarth on YouTube: http://goo.gl/EpIDGd
Get early, exclusive access to our videos on Vessel: https://goo.gl/hgD1iJ
Support us on Patreon: https://goo.gl/ZVgLQZ

Also, say hello on:
Facebook: http://goo.gl/FpAvo6
Twitter: http://goo.gl/Y1aWVC

And find us on itunes: https://goo.gl/sfwS6n
___________________________________________

If you liked this week’s video, we think you might also like these things:
The Blitzkreiglr YouTube guys play the game Hybrid Animals:    • Hybrid Animals  Ep. 1  Hybrid Eleph...  
___________________________________________

References:

Ryder, O., Chemnick, L., Bowling, A., Benirschke, K. (1985). Male mule foal qualifies as the offspring of a female mule and Jack donkey. Journal of Heredity 76 (379381). Retrieved from http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cont...

C.J. Zhao, Y.H. Qin, X.H. Lee, Ch. Wu (2006). Molecular and cytogenetic paternity testing of a male offspring of a hinny. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics,123: 403405. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17...

Bucholz (2013). Colorado miracle mule foal lived short life, but was wellloved.The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/2013/08/16/...

Millon, L. (2016). Personal Communication.

Antczak, D. (2016). Personal Communication.

posted by anissadaoud7q