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Interspecies hybrids: natural & artificial
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 (01-29-2019, 03:46 AM)brotherbear Wrote: This is interesting although hybrids serve no purpose. ( that I know of ). As mentioned elsewhere, in 2017, the Cat Specialist Group recognised only 2 subspecies of lions, like they did with tigers and other felids, but the defined subspecies of lions (the Northern Panthera leo leo (including the Asiatic, Barbary and West African lions), and the Southern Panthera leo melanochaita in Eastern and Southern Africa) apparently overlap in Ethiopia or Northeast Africa, at least, which could lead to hybridisationbetween the Northern and Southern subspecies. This is a potential taxonomic headache for the CSG, because subspecies are supposed to be geographically and genetically distinct from each other (Study.com): https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-genetic...list-group, https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-north-e...ican-lions Abyssinian lion at New York Zoological Gardens, 1914: https://archive.org/stream/annualreportn...6/mode/1up Northern subspecies (Panthera leo leo), Southern subspecies (Panthera leo melanochaita), or hybrid (Panthera leo leo × Panthera leo melanochaita)?  *This image is copyright of its original author
On 22 May 2017, Karl Shuker, author and cryptozoologist in England, discovered this long lost photograph of an extraordinary hybrid cat. Cubanacan, the progeny of a lion and a tigon [tiger x lioness] was born at the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, India, on 7 March 1979, and was the only surviving cub of his litter of three.
 *This image is copyright of its original author Cubanacan as portrayed in the 1985 Guinness Book of Records. Alipore Zoo, Kolkata Alipore Zoo had embarked on a fifteen-year endeavour to hybridise lions and tigers, an effort that created Cubanacan’s tigon mother, Rudrani, and her sister, Rangini, several years earlier. A pioneering scientific success for India, and even the rest of the world, Cubanacan was widely regarded as the first litigon born in the world.  *This image is copyright of its original author A depiction of Cubanacan’s tigon mother, Rudrani, approaching his lion father, Devabrata. From 100 Years of Calcutta Zoo (1875-1975). The Centenary Celebration Committee, Zoological Garden, Alipore, Calcutta (1975)  *This image is copyright of its original author A captioned photograph of the litigon Cubanacan, published in The Statesman, Calcutta (now Kolkata) on 12 March 1980. However, a record from 1943 indicates a successful mating between a fifteen-year-old lion-tiger and a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo to produce a female cub. Even so, Cubanacan’s remarkable genetic makeup sparked interest and enthusiasm in India and around the globe. The fascination with hybrid cats continued as Rudrani produced four more litigons in subsequent years. There is now evidence that these experiments were led by a scientific quest to determine if hybrids could be fertile, a question that struck at the heart of the notion of biological species. At the time, the very definition of species hinged on reproductive isolation. Though probing at a research question, concerns surfaced about artificially creating animals not found in the wild as freaks for public curiosity. There were also claims of animal cruelty during the process, an allegation that has come to the forefront in the current effort to ban cross breeding of big cats in the United States.  *This image is copyright of its original author In the weeks following his birth, The Statesman ran articles about Cubanacan. In the midst of this controversy, hybrids still command ample public attention. The 2017 Guinness World Records (formerly the Guinness Book of Records) ranked, Hercules, a liger [lion x tigress] at the Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina, the world’s largest big cat. Cubanacan was also once the world’s largest big cat, who, according to Guinness in 1985, weighed 363 kg (800 pounds), stood 1.32 m (4.4 inches) at the shoulder and measured 3.5 m (11.6 inches) in length. Given the aversion to hybridisation and the subsequent 1985 ban on cross breeding big cats in India, it appears that Cubanacan’s memory was purposely forgotten.  *This image is copyright of its original author Unspecified photographs of a tigon and a litigon, published in the Guidebook to Calcutta Zoo, A Dunlop Presentation, with legends whitened. Presumably, this was an effort to prevent proper identification of the taxa in the years after cross breeding became illegal. Exact publisher & publication date unknown, but circumstantially the photographs date to between 1992 and 1995. The hybridisation debate in biology is important. So is the current proposal on banning big cat hybridisation in the US, and it is in the light of this controversy that Cubanacan’s photograph is being preserved for posterity as a valuable item in wildlife history, best viewed without value judgement. http://blogs.nature.com/indigenus/2017/0...tigon.html  (11-01-2019, 08:47 AM)Sully Wrote: On 22 May 2017, Karl Shuker, author and cryptozoologist in England, discovered this long lost photograph of an extraordinary hybrid cat. Cubanacan, the progeny of a lion and a tigon [tiger x lioness] was born at the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, India, on 7 March 1979, and was the only surviving cub of his litter of three. Yes, Alipur zoo drew lot of flak due to its hybridization experiments back then. Photos defunct though.
Years before the Cat Specialist Group published the classification of 2 subspecies in 2017, this Mexican zoo was in such a rush to find a mate for a male Amur tiger that it got a Bengal tigress to mate with it, and produce a hybrid litter of cubs: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtub...f98c55701d
"AUDIO AS INCOMING 1. Various of female Bengal tiger with her cubs inside enclosure 2. Close-up of three cubs resting in hay 3. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Felipe Ramirez Sanchez, Jaguar Zoo veterinarian: "The Siberian tiger species is a species that is in danger of extinction. Currently there are fewer than 2,000 of them in the wild, but there are more in captivity and there are different organisations around the world that are trying make sure this species does not disappear. In this park, we have a (male) Siberian tiger and it's important to us that they reproduce." 4. Various of female tiger cleaning her cubs in their enclosure 5. Mid of cubs 6. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Felipe Ramirez Sanchez, Jaguar Zoo veterinarian: "This litter is the result of the mating of a female Bengal tiger and a male Siberian tiger. Despite being two different subspecies, the cross-mating was done successfully and the cubs are in good condition." 7. Close-up of cub opening its mouth 8. Mid female tiger with cub climbing over her paw 9. Various of cubs with their mother 10. Close-up of cubs 11. Mid of cubs sleeping while mother sits next to them StorylineGo to top Jaguar Zoo in southern Mexico has three new members, a litter of half-Bengal, half-Siberian tiger cubs born on 3 April. The cubs made their public debut on Tuesday. The zoo, located 43 kilometres (26 miles) south east of the city of Oaxaca, mated their 12-year-old Siberian male tiger named Yagul with an 8-year-old female Bengal tiger, Yaki, to produce the litter of three. "Despite being from two different subspecies, the cross-mating was done successfully and the cubs are in good condition," said the zoo's veterinarian, Felipe Ramirez Sanchez. Although the zoo lacks a specific breeding program for the critically endangered Siberian tigers, also known as Amur tigers, Ramirez said that they hope to find a Siberian female to mate with Yagul to produce fully Siberian cubs. "The Siberian tiger species is a species that is in danger of extinction. Currently there are fewer than 2,000 of them in the wild," he noted, saying also that they will start searching for a Siberian mate in other Mexican zoos. Bengal tigers are more numerous and are only considered threatened," he said. The relatively small zoo receives around a thousand visitors each week and features 70 animals from 50 different species." CHEETAH /LEOPARD HYBRIDS (CHEETAPARD)
The Cheetah (Asia/Africa) is neither a "big cat" nor a "small cat" but usually is placed in a family of its own. There are probably only two subspecies - the African and the Asian. Archaic forms of cheetah were more widespread, including long extinct North American varieties. There is some fascination over whether cheetahs and leopards could hybridize and produce offspring, in particular the possibility of a black leopard (panther) x cheetah hybrid to give a black cheetah.. In the wild, cheetahs (diurnal) and leopards (nocturnal) occupy the same territory but avoid conflict by having different activity patterns. Leopards will attack cheetahs. Over the years there have been sporadic reports of a "cheetapard" (or cheetard) or "forest cheetah", a creature built like a cheetah but marked like a leopard. Some early reports suggested it was a forest-dwelling hybrid between the cheetah (a plains dweller which runs down prey) and the leopard (an excellent tree-climber and ambush hunter). The blotched King Cheetah was once thought to be evidence of a cheetah/leopard hybrid since East African legends claim that leopards will sometimes mate with cheetahs. The King Cheetah is a naturally occurring colour variety of the cheetah. Instead of small, discrete spots, the king cheetah is marked with swirls and blotches much like a tabby domestic cat. At first regarded as a hybrid, it was later thought to be a new species of forest-dwelling cheetah and is now known to be a colour variation. Normal spotted and mutant blotched cheetah cubs can occur in the same litter.  *This image is copyright of its original author King cheeth, once posited as a leopard x cheetah hybridIn captivity, the two animals could be reared together and a mating arranged. Some sources claim the cats are genetically similar enough to produce hybrids, others state the exact opposite citing the cheetah's extremely specialised form as a barrier to producing viable foetuses. The two species have similar gestation periods. Cheetah hybrids are unlikely for other reasons. The lightweight size and build of the cheetah means that a female cheetah is unlikely to carry large hybrid cubs to term or might be unable to deliver them if she did. Severe inbreeding has resulted in very poor sperm quality (below what is normally the threshold of infertility) so cheetah sperm might be unable to fertilize the eggs of another big cat species. Growth dysplasia would also be likely. Cheetah females are often mated by a coalition (bachelor group) of males while leopard females generally have a single mate. If this is the case, it would be comparable to the growth dysplasias seen in ligers and tigons.  *This image is copyright of its original author Pseudo-melanistic leopard, once posited as a leopard x cheetah hybrid (The Field, 1908)Theoretical leopard (panther) x cheetah hybrids would have a mix of leopard and cheetah characteristics - a spotted or rosetted pelt (leopard melanism is recessive), semi-muscular build intermediate between the stocky leopard and the rangy cheetah. A hybrid would be stockier than a cheetah, but less stocky than a leopard and would therefore lack the running speed of a purebred cheetah. In January 2003, India announced plans to clone Iranian Asiatic cheetahs, a species now extinct in India and limited to only about 50 cheetahs in Iran. Scientists at Hyberabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, says scientists will use surrogate leopard mothers to carry the cloned cheetah cubs. The clones will not be leopard-cheetah hybrids, they will be pure cheetahs. The fact that their mitochondrial DNA is likely to be from the leopard egg cell does not make them hybrids. CHEETAH/JAGUAR HYBRIDS
Cheetahs occur in Africa; jaguars occur in South America. In captivity, they could in theory be reared together and a mating arranged. Should such a pairing produce offspring (see above), they would be similar to a cheetah/leopard hybrid but with a different spotting pattern. CHEETAH/PUMA HYBRIDS
The cheetah's closest relative is the Puma (America). The two species could only meet in a zoo or menagerie and I have found no reported attempts to breed cheetah/puma hybrids. Cryptozoologists once thought the North American "Onza" (a long-legged form of puma) might be a non-spotted relict form of American cheetah. SERVEETAH
A serval/cheetah hybrid has been posited. Although both are long-legged cats, the size difference would probably prevent a mating. CHEETAH/DOMESTIC
In October 2009, the PeoplePets website falsely reported that Chinese-born actress Bai Ling's cat Quiji was a cheetah hybrid with a cheetah father and domestic cat mother and purchased from a breeder for approximately $30,000. This is either a mistake or an attempt to mislead. The size disparity means domestic cats and cheetahs cannot form hybrids: their relative sizes make the cat a snack, not a mate and even if artifical means were used (very unreliable in felids) the gestational mismatch would be too great (cheetah gestation period is 93 days, domestic cat gestation period is around 63 days). Bai Ling's cat is not a cheetah hybrid. On her own blog Bai in September 2008, Bai Ling stated her cat is an A1 Supreme and part-serval. Although she says the A1 Supreme is not a Savannah cat, the term "A1 Supreme" just refers to the "supreme" quality of that particular Savannah cat and the corresponding high price. A1 Savannahs apparently used photos of Bai Ling and her A1 Savannah in their adverts. Claiming it is part cheetah appears to be a publicity stunt by the actress.
um, here's a hybrid from two different families which is..insane
Hybridization of Russian Sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, Brandt and Ratzeberg, 1833) and American Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula, Walbaum 1792) and Evaluation of Their Progeny [color=rgba(95, 73, 122, 0.75)]Abstract Two species from the families Acipenseridae and Polyodontidae, Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, Brandt and Ratzeberg, 1833; functional tetraploid) and American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula, Walbaum 1792, functional diploid) were hybridized. The hybridization was repeated using eggs from three sturgeon and sperm from four paddlefish individuals. Survival in all hybrid family groups ranged from 62% to 74% 30 days after hatching. This was the first successful hybridization between these two species and between members of the family Acipenseridae and Polyodontidae. Flow cytometry and chromosome analysis revealed two ploidy levels in hybrids. The chromosome numbers of the hybrids ranged between 156–184 and 300–310, in “functional” triploids and “functional” pentaploids, respectively. The hybrid origin and the ploidy levels were also confirmed by microsatellite analyses. In hybrids, the size and the number of dorsal and ventral scutes correlated with the ploidy levels as well as with the calculated ratio of the maternal and paternal chromosome sets. An extra haploid cell lineage was found in three hybrid individuals irrespective of the ploidy level, suggesting polyspermy. Although the growth performance showed high variance in hybrids (mean: 1.2 kg, SD: 0.55), many individuals reached a size of approximately 1 kg by the age of one year under intensive rearing conditions.[/color] 
North african wolf dog hybrid in Libya.
الجمعية الليبية لحماية الحياة البرية The Libyan Wildlife Trust  *This image is copyright of its original author
Cheetah hybrids
Serveetah This a hybrid between a cheetah and a serval Cheetapard This is a cheetah and leopard hybrid.Cheetahpard or forest cheetahs have been reported.These hybrids are described to look like a cheetah with leopard markings.The king cheetah was mistaken to be a cheetah leopard hybrid. Cheetah Domestic Cat cross A savannah cat was mistaken for a cheetah domestic cat cross.It was later revealed that cheetahs and domestic cats cannot produce hybrids. A cheetah jaguar hybrid is in theory possible http://messybeast.com/genetics/hyb-cheetah.htm |
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