Hi, Two years ago, I was surprised to see that one of my neighbours' black cat was quite chummy with a fox. I would have thought the fox would have eaten the cat! But I have seen them together on several occasions since then. And two weeks ago, I saw a very strange animal on the car park next to our block. It was a VERY large cat, at least twice as big as a normal cat. It was not fat, it was big & tall. The colour of its fur was also quite strange: it was like big patches of black and brown, and quite bushy. Could that creature be a mutant, a hybrid between a fox and a cat ? I thought that interbreeding species was genetically impossible, but is it just very unlikely? Thanks for your help, cjc
2007-02-04 04:01:20 · 13 answers · asked by cjc 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
I thought a fox was more canine than feline, and not at all likely to mate with a cat. The Irish name for a fox is 'madra rua' which means red dog. Are you sure you didn't see something like a pine marten or other unusual bit of wildlife?
2007-02-04 04:07:07 · answer #1 · answered by RM 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it is genetically impossible, since the fox is in the "Dog" family, not a cat. What you saw was probably a very large cat - perhaps a Maine Coon Cat. She could be a newcomer to the neighborhood. They often get larger than 25 pounds - which is about twice the size of a normal cat. Was it a calico? If so, almost certainly a female.
2016-05-24 03:56:19 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You probably saw some breed of cat or dog or some other wild animal, like a bob cat. If it was kind of far away, you might not have been able to see it quite clear enough. Sometimes our imaginations can cause us to think that something we can't see quite clear enough is something entirely different than what it actually is, for example, people in Scotland might think that he saw the Loch Ness Monster on Loch Ness on a foggy morning when what he was actually seeing was a partially submerged branch.
2007-02-04 07:35:33 · answer #3 · answered by wildcatfan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is possible for animals closely related to produce viable offspring, but cats are felines and foxes are canines, which means that they are related only in the fact that they are both carnivores, and that is as close as we are related to dogs, so no way. However, animals like horses and donkeys can interbreed and produce mules because they are very closely related. Nature puts many barriers to breeding with other species, like chromosome number incompatibility, so no mutants in the sense you are talking about, exist in nature.
2007-02-05 07:37:28 · answer #4 · answered by Lara Croft 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, I'm afraid it is physically impossible for a fox and a cat to breed.
The creature you saw must have been some kind of dog. Not easy to identify without seeing it.
Or do you have a mad scientist who lives in your area?
2007-02-04 04:12:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
it could have been a fox not all fox are red we had a soild black one that lived in the woods by our house for years cats and fox can not reprouduce with one another
2007-02-04 07:38:04 · answer #6 · answered by hill bill y 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Possible with a feral cat, but highly unlikely.
2007-02-04 04:18:26 · answer #7 · answered by psychoticgenius 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Unlikely and impossible.
Anyway what would you call it? A Fat or a Cox?
2007-02-04 04:05:23 · answer #8 · answered by leedsmikey 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They have different numbers of chromosomes, so I very much doubt it.
2007-02-04 04:12:08 · answer #9 · answered by cheekbones3 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
no they are different species so are unable to produce young
2007-02-04 05:44:45 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋