Animal breeding question....?

Question

Sorry to ask this question and it will probably be removed but I am interested to know...
I know that you can breed different types of dog together...and you can breed different types of human ie blacks with white and chinese etc...
Why is it not possible to breed a cat with a dog... or a horse with a camel etc?
Has anyone ever tried or do the genes just not mix because they know they are not compatable? Like a mutation...
Sorry this thought just popped into my head.. not like i want to try creating an elehorse (elephant and horse) or a shecow (sheep and cow) or anything ... just wondered if it could be done and if it ever has??? Is this how we get strange breeds of animals etc??

Answer 1

I think this is a great question! I'm going to do some research, and come back with an answer.

EDIT- Well, I'm having trouble finding out WHY differing animals can't breed. I'm guessing that the sperm and egg of differing animals don't recognize the other's DNA as reproductive parts...Anyways, I did find some interesting stuff on animals that DO made outside of their species:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_animals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28genetics%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_barrier

Answer 2

Why don't lemon trees grow apples? Its baisicly the same question. The thing is, genetic manipulation through breeding just doesn't work out the way its supposed to (unless those animals are in the same family, like the cat family (therefore tigers and lions)), if a baby was conceived at all. A dog is a dog, humans are humans, but an elephant isn't the same as a horse. Just be content the way Mother Nature made animals.

(Oh, and IF an elehorse or something was born, be aware that that is a mutation, and the results might not be pretty.)

Answer 3

Animals all stick to their own kind. To cross breed between different species of animals would cause too much turmoil in the animal kingdom. Disease & genetic deformities would not allow for the "survival of the fittest" and too many species could and would be wiped out. Animals breed to carry on their gene pool. If you ever notice in certain species only the top/fittest/toughest males get to breed - this is to ensure that the stongest, biggest and healthiest survive.

Dogs as a whole are their own species just with different breeds that is why you can cross breed them and come up with the fancy dogs like a Labradoodle or a Puggle - still just one species though. Same with cats - they are their own species just with different breeds.

The only reason there is a such thing as a Liger is because man decided to put those 2 animals together not because the animals chose to be together.

Answer 4

They have to be the same species to mate properly ie to produce a fertile offspring.This is the definition of a species.You can get artificial crosses from within the same family
eg horse x donkey = mule
donkey x horse = hinny
tiger x lion = tigon
lion x tiger = liger. (male is the first named)

All these are supposedly infertile.

crosses outside a family are impossible even for similar looking animals
e.g a hare and a rabbit,
a crocodile and an alligator.

An African and an Asian elephant were successfully crossed in Chester zoo but the offspring died.

Dog/cat is a no-no.

Answer 5

You can only interbread species. Dogs are all one species, same with cats. That is why a tiger and a lion can breed. It's the same with all animals. Use snakes as an example. Different types of garden snakes can breed together, but a rattle snake can't bread with a garden snake. Their DNA is no longer compatible, they're too different.

This is also how we get donkeys when a mule and a horse breed. They are the same species, just different animals.

Answer 6

You answered your own question when you said you can breed different dogs togeather .You can breed within a species to a limited degree with sub species like a lion and tigerproduce a tigon or liger,a horse and donkey produce a mule but the young are hybrids and cannot reproduce again I suppose you could call this natures way of preserving the species.

Answer 7

I have answered this question before - in classical genetics the species concept is more clearly defined and in animals it still holds good. And that is each species is reproductively isolated. The different species do not mate because they simply prefer their own females (or males) for doing it. There is something known as courtship and such and each type (species) prefers its own type. It is only when we (as scientists, interfering busybodies), mix the sperm and egg of different species that inter breeds (also called hybrids) occur. But most of the time they are sterile. If you are a biologist you will understand that during meiosis the pairing of chromosomes will go awry and so sterility occurs. In plants while more miscigination and hybridization occurs, many times such offspring survive by forming polyploids. Otherwise in animals ligers or mules simply do not go beyond one generation. Among us humans, all races can intermarry whether caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid, Indopacific, australian aboriginal, eskimo, red-Indian, Jewish, Bedouin, Arabian, Iranian or any other race can all inter breed because we carry 2n=46 chromosomes uniformly and we are all humans (Homo sapiens). Many science fiction writers have predicted that in a millenium humans will uniformly be brown in colour with brown or black hair, medium thick lips and six foot tall.....a uniform race of humans.

Answer 8

yes, it's possible to genetically mix the DNA. the outcome? Not a joke but China scraped a human and pig mix DNA project .
black bears can mate with a polar bear

IQALUIT, Nunavut - Northern hunters, scientists and people with vivid imaginations have discussed the possibility for years.

But Roger Kuptana, a guide from Canada’s Sachs Harbor was the first to suspect it had actually happened when he proposed that a strange-looking bear shot last month by an American sports hunter might be half polar bear, half grizzly.

Officials seized the creature after noticing its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. Now a DNA test has confirmed that it is indeed a hybrid — possibly the first documented in the wild.

Answer 9

That is what makes species species. Once animals are deemed not to interbreed, they are defined as different species. I assume this has something to do with genetics, but that is not my field, so you have to ask some one else about that.

Answer 10

A Lion and a Tiger have mated. They call it Liger.