Most species cannot interbreed with a different species, but there are exceptions.
These exceptions can only happen if the two species are closely related, such as the horse and the donkey; or at least have the same length strands of DNA.
The most widely practiced form of cross-species hybridization is the breeding of a stallion with a female donkey to produce a mule. Mules, in the vast majority of cases, cannot produce offspring.
I am personally aware that the rock pigeon (Columba livia) and the ring-necked dove (Streptopelia capicola) can produce hybrids although they are not of the same genus, let alone the same species. These hybrids cannot reproduce.
When a male and female mate, the male's sperm was join with the female's ovum, to make a baby. When this happens, a strand of DNA from the sperm splits down the middle like a zipper, and the same happens to the DNA from the ovum. Then a strand from the sperm joins with one from the ovum, like zipping up a zipper; and this is the beginning of the baby.
If the male and female are not of the same species, their DNA may be of different lengths so they do not match, and so the DNA does not zip up properly. Only in some few cases will the 2 species have DNA that can match up closely enough to make a baby. Even so, the offspring can rarely reproduce itself.
Now, Coyotes (Canis latrans) can interbreed freely with domestic dogs and with wolves (both of which are Canis lupus), and the offspring are completely fertile. This makes me wonder whether coyotes should be classified as Canis lupus, but I am not making the rules.
Yes, in a few instances. The most interbreeding goes on in certain minnows, which not only interbreed freely with fishes of closely-related species but also breed freely with minnows in different genera. The offspring are fully fertile too.
You've been given several examples in other answers, including cross genus hybrids. This shows that the classical Linnaean classification does not accurately reflect biological relationships and the created kind is generally above species level and could be at the family level in some cases. We can infer that the horse, donkey, and zebra are all descended from the "horse" kind.
Yeah, similar species can interbreed but most often the offspring will be sterile or even stillborn and interbreeding usually only happens in zoos, not the wild.
Many species are closely related enough to have viable offspring.
Male Lion + Female Tiger = Liger
Female Lion + Male Tiger = Tigon
Male Horse + Female Donkey = Mule
Female Horse + Male Donkey = Hinny
et al.
See the link for more infor on hybrids and for further examples.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_%28b...
Donkey? Or those half zebra half horse ones.
how does this work. if a different species have sex with another species can it get pregnant. if so name one species.
