Snapshot Serengeti Talk

Hybrid Animals

  • PALewis by PALewis

    How common are hybrids in the wild? Like would we ever see mixing between Thomson's and Grant's gazelles for example?

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  • kosmala by kosmala scientist

    I don't know the exact answer, but I suspect they're quite rare. Animals have a strong tendency to mate with their own species over other species.

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator

    I have never seen any evidence of this in Serengeti.

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  • Damon22 by Damon22

    The definition of species mandates that any hybrids are infertile so they won't proliferate.

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  • leece by leece

    Well, that's what they taught me in Biology in high school. But it's incorrect, fertile hybrids consistently and regularly occur, so if the mandate held, we would have to classify Mallards and Black Duck as the same species, Lamas and Camels, Tigers and Lions, Yaks and Cows etc - all of which produce fertile offspring.

    But it's pretty rare to see mammal hybrids in nature, and the camel lama cross was created in the test tube.

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  • tillydad by tillydad moderator

    Interestingly, in areas where Grevy's Zebra(Equus grevyi) and Plains Zebra(Equus burchelli) are found together hybridisation does occur naturally, and produces fertile hybrids.
    One result of this hybridisation could be that the endangered Grevy's Zebra's genetic pool is weakened and this could affect its long term future.

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  • leece by leece

    I don't know much about Zebra behaviours, are they like horses socially - do stallions raid for mares? Are they much different in size, the Burchells and the Grevys?

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  • tillydad by tillydad moderator

    Firstly, yes there is a considerable difference in size between Equus grevyi and Equus burchelli.
    Typically Grevy's stand at an average of 150 cm (shoulder), and males weigh approximately 430kg average with females weighing in at 386kg average.
    Burchell's (Plains) zebras average height is 134cm (shoulder) , and males weigh an average of 250kg, and females are approximately 220kg on average.
    The Grevy's shares a lineage with asses and donkeys, whilst the Burchell's is more closely akin to horses, hence the differences in appearance.

    Male Grevy's establish territories and wait for females to enter them. Once estrous females are present the male will not tolerate other breeding males coming into close contact with his harem and he will drive them away. It is not feasible for him to oust them completely from his territory and so he maintains close contact with estrous females. Some "raids" are successful with the non-territorial males copulating with the females.

    Burchell's have a different social organization in that herds will contain both males and females with one stallion holding breeding rights. He will follow estrous females for several days, frequently attempting to mate with her. She will resist until she is ovulating. Given that there are other breeding males in his herd the dominant stallion will be unable to fend off all the other males attempting to mate. Once the female ovulates she will mate and will stay with the stallion that impregnates her.

    It is impossible to fully explain the many complexities in Zebra society here and the above is a very simple overview which I hope helps.

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  • leece by leece

    That's a great overview, thank you for taking the time! It's fascinating to an amateur naturalist like me, I'll do some reading on the subject - I'm particularly interested in the mixed species herds - at home I'm a birdwatcher and we have mixed species feeding flocks here, it's interesting to see it writ large.

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