Crossbreeding of Housecat/Bobcat?

Question

Does anybody know the genus and species of housecats and bobcats? Are they close enough to make viable offspring? sterile hybrids? If a male Bobcat came across a female housecat in heat, I'm thinking he would breed rather than eat the female. Then what...?

Answer 1

he would probably kill the house cats. most cats will only breed within their species. any ligers you see was weither forced breeeding or artificial insemination. the egg may not even recieve the sperm becuase the body may destroy it.

Answer 2

Pixie bobs... saw something on them quite a while back on discovery channel or something. Enjoy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixie-bob_c...

Answer 3

Domestic cats (Felis catus) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) are in different genera - usually only animals within the same genus can breed, and even then the offspring are nearly always sterile. There are occasional inter-genus hybrids, but these are invariably sterile. Domestic cats and bobcats are quite widely separated in evolutionary terms, and are too different to be able to breed. Bobcats are also considerably larger than domestic cats, and would see them as prey rather than as potential mates. Similarly, domestic cats would see bobcats as a possible threat, and avoid them, not try to mate with them.

Domestic cats are descended from the African wildcat, and are still able to interbreed with this species. They can also interbreed with the leopard cat, producing a hybrid known as the Bengal cat.

Answer 4

There is a pretty big difference between house cats and bobcats.  There is always a chance that they might mate, but most likely they would not.  If they did happen to mate, and carried the offspring to term, they would definitely be sterile hybrids, completely unviable, with a low likely hood of surviving to adulthood.  There have been claims of bobcats mating with domestic cats, but genetic testing hasn't proved the surviving offspring to be anything but domestic.  So the bobcat could possibly mate with the domestic cat, but it is unlikely, and if they had been breeding over a number of years creating viable offspring, bobcats would be losing their signature look, and would start looking more like hybrids.

http://www.messybeast.com/small-hybrids/...

Housecat: Felis catus

Bobcat: Lynx rufus