The classic ‘Wizard of Oz’ line “lions, tigers and bears, oh my” could now be said in a completely different way as there are some crazy-named animal hybrids out there.
I’m talking about hybrids, the offspring resulting from the mating of two different species.
They can occur when animals of the two species within a genus (a lion and tiger) or different genus mate (a sheep and a goat).
Another type of hybrid (not as exciting but just as important) occurs within breeds of the same species such as what happens in plant and animal breeding.
The offspring of inter-species crosses are normally sterile to stop movement of genes from one species to another. This is because species have different numbers of chromosomes so their offspring have odd numbers of chromosomes and can’t produce viable gametes. When donkeys, with 62 chromosomes, and horses, with 64 chromosomes mate, the resulting mules or hinnies have 63 chromosomes and are sterile.
Appearances wise, hybrids are often a mixture of both parents, displaying traits and characteristics of both. Sometimes the hybrid has a trait that neither parent has, this is called heterotic. Ligers are much larger then both lions and tigers for example.
In the wild, mating between different animal species is usually prevented by different mating or courtship behaviours, having different mating seasons or even allergic reactions to sperm of another species.
It is more common in plants and the resulting hybrids can be fertile and reproduce. Often the hybrids are polyploids as they have more than the normal set of chromosomes. This has been exploited by humans to improve crops to produce bigger fruits or flowers. For example, bananas have been intentionally bred to be triploid (three sets of chromosomes) so they won’t produce seeds.
See if you can guess the animal crosses in the title above and the following;
Wholphin
Jaglion
Beefalo
Answers in next post 🙂
geneticsfordummies 
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