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.
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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/
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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.