Can different species breed? Besides horses and donkeys that is.?

Question

Say like a human and a really s**y great dane. JUST KIDDING!

Answer 1

Tigers and lions.

Answer 2

Its only a successful breed if the outcome is not sterile.

Answer 3

Yes, I've seen a baby zebra and donkey mix in a zoo!! No lie!

Answer 4

No.  At least not in Nature.  The definition of species includes being s*x specific within the species.

Mules are a product of mans manipulation.  The mating of a wild horse with a wild donkey in the wild would never happen.  Same goes with all these other gross hybrids man has concocted.  Sad thing about it, it is done to make money.  Exploiting animals for profit.  What's even more sad is that people think scientist do these things.  Wrong.

Answer 5

There are minnows that interbreed all the time and are fertile with both parents and with the other hybrids. They are not only different species, they are different genera.

Answer 6

Yes, there are many examples of hybrid animals besides the famous mule (offspring of a male donkey and female horse) and hinny (offspring of a male horse and female donkey). Two well-known hybrids are ligers (the offspring of a male lion and female tiger) and tigons (the offspring of a male tiger and female lion). There are also leopons (leopard-lion hybrids), jaguleps (jaguar-leopard hybrids), Bengal cats (leopard cat-domestic cat hybrids), zeedonks (zebra-donkey hybrids), wolphins (whale-dolphin hybrids), camas (camel-llama hybrids), wolf-dogs and many more.

In order for two different species to breed, they must be closely related - usually within the same genus, and at least within the same family. Even then the offspring are nearly always sterile, due to the parents having different numbers of chromosomes. If two species are able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring, it shows that they are very closely related - for example, the domestic dog is the direct descendant of the grey wolf, and the two are still so close genetically that their offspring can reproduce.