Can members two different species have offspring together?

Answer 1

Yes

Lions and Tigers can mate if raised in captivity - Liger
Horses and Donkeys mate - mule
Zebra and horse - Zorse

Answer 2

Yes. Generlly the Genes must match but hybrids are possible.

In its common modern meaning, a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Compare hinny – the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey. The term "mule" (Latin mulus) was formerly applied to the offspring of any two creatures of different species – in modern usage, a "hybrid".

In general, for large, complex, organisms that reproduce sexually (such as mammals and birds), one of several variations on the isolation or biological species concept is employed. Often, the distinction between different species, even quite closely related ones, is simple. Horses (Equus caballus) and donkeys (Equus asinus) are easily told apart even without study or training, and yet are so closely related that they can interbreed after a fashion. Because the result, a mule or hinny, is not usually fertile, they are clearly separate species.

But many cases are more difficult to decide. This is where the isolation species concept diverges from the evolutionary species concept. Both agree that a species is a lineage that maintains its integrity over time, that is diagnosably different from other lineages (else we could not recognise it), is reproductively isolated (else the lineage would merge into others, given the chance to do so), and has a working intra-species recognition system (without which it could not continue). In practice, both also agree that a species must have its own independent evolutionary history—otherwise the characteristics just mentioned would not apply. The species concepts differ in that the evolutionary species concept does not make predictions about the future of the population: it simply records that which is already known. In contrast, the isolation species concept refuses to assign the rank of species to populations that, in the best judgement of the researcher, would recombine with other populations if given the chance to do so.


The mule, easier to breed and usually larger in size than a hinny, has monopolised the attention of breeders. The chromosome match-up more often occurs when the jack (male donkey) is the sire and the mare (female horse) is the dam. Sometimes people let a stallion (male horse) run with a jenny (female donkey) for as long as six years before getting her pregnant. Mules and hinnies are almost always sterile (see fertile mules below for rare cases) (see External links). The sterility is attributed to the different number of chromosomes the two species have: donkeys have 62 chromosomes, while horses have 64. Their offspring thus have 63 chromosomes which cannot evenly divide.

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Answer 3

Yes, two different species from the same genus can breed to form an offspring. However they are usually the result of human breeding and almost never occur in nature, and the offspring are usually sterile and cannot reproduce. One rare instance of a natrually occuring hybrid is a wolphin, a cross between a bottlenose dolphin female and a false killer whale male.

One of the most common hybrid species is the mule. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey (Equus asinus) and a female horse (Equus caballus). A hinny is what the offsrping of a female donkey and a male horse.

A nice list of animal hybrids can be found on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_animals

Answer 4

Most large cats are able to cross-breed and have offspring together. There are many different combinations that can be made, but here are a couple:

Male lion + female tiger = Liger.
Male tiger + female lion = Tigon.
Male leopard + female lion = Leopon.

Don't know if you would consider them different species, as they're both large cats. But it's still interesting nonetheless.

Answer 5

Equus asinus and Equus caballus, Donkey and Horse are 2 different species and they can mate. And I'm sure there are many plants that can do this too. But if you mean members of 2 different Genome, I don't think so.

Answer 6

it depend, if u want to breed ur dog and cat, then the answer is no, most animals have different genes and dna and if they are too different, then the gene wont mix

different nationallity of human are so close when it comes to genetic, that we can mix, other example is a donkey and a horse , two different animal can create a mule

Answer 7

Sure, look at donkeys and horses having mules. The are hybrids, though. Uneven chromosome count. Viable in mules, but no meiotic equalization to produce progeny.

Answer 8

If donkeys and horses are considered different species (I think they are) then yes but most the time it does not work.

Answer 9

Yes, they can, but the offspring will be sterile. This is a fact.

Answer 10

depends on how genetically similar the two "different" species are.