Strange animals sightings

[quackersgpi]

Sometimes we think this is it, that man, and animals have evolved and what is now is what will be for evermore (unless animals become extinct of course). This belief that we are now at some sort of "end point" is potentially damaging as it does not allow us to consider simple possibilities such as animal mutations, new breeds and generic changes when looking at "creatures" that are reported as "out of the ordinary".

What recent changes (and by recent of course we could be looking at the last few hundred years) have there been ? How much has man changed, how much has our animal life changed..and what changes are possible in the future ?

There is evidence to suggest that certain crossing of species is affecting our somewhat larger animals. The Hybrids that appear as a result of this appear different to any animal seen before..could this be the explanation for the weird and wonderful "animal" sightings reported by people. With Hybrids being the breeding between two species the numbers will be low as, when those species breed again it will be with one or other of the original breeds. The genes that form the new life will have more links to the original breed and so the appearence of the new life born will be more or less the same as an original animal species. Only when two hybrids breed will we see an increase in that particular form of animal. Hope you all got the gist of what I was saying there, not the easiest thing to explain !

An example of this comes from the BBC science Online from May last year :

A white bear with brown patches shot dead in northern Canada is the first grizzly-polar hybrid found in the wild, DNA tests have confirmed.
Canadian wildlife officials say it is the offspring of a male grizzly bear and a female polar bear.

There have long been stories of oddly coloured bears living in regions where the two territories overlap. The hybrid bear was shot last month by an American big game hunter on Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada.

His guide, Roger Kuptana, noticed the creature had the long claws and slightly humped back of a grizzly bear and thought it might be a hybrid.

The body was seized by officials, who sent a DNA sample for tests which confirmed its unusual origins.

[Koolg]

I had acockrel with webbed feet and it used to go

COCKLE DOODLE QUACK

[shazzz]

Whats a hybrid?

and I bet there is loads of species out there that we dont even know exits that have been cross bred

[alfie]

shazz a hybrid is the result of two different breeds or species mating.

[Meercat]

I found the top 10 Hybrid animals! (Im thinking the words 'life', 'dave' and 'get a'...)

At number 10!

Liger/Tigon
Crossbreed of Lions and Tigers

9. Wolf Dog
Pretty easy this one, yep. its a dog and a wolf.

8. Iron Age Pig
Crossbreed of a Domestic Tamworth Pig and Wild Boar. Apparently they make super sausages. (Well the pigs dont personally 'make' the sausages, well they do, but not with...forget it...)

7. A Zebroid Broken down into:

A Zorse - Horse and Zebra
A Zonkey - Donkey and Zebra
A Zony - Pony and Zebra
(It appears the term Zebroid covers a Zebra, and anything else that fancies a Zebra)

6. A Cama
A Camel and a LLama. Born via artificial insemination due to the size difference (and lack of boxes to stand on...)

5. Grolar/Pizzly
A Grizzly Bear and a Polar Bear 'getting it on'

4. A Leopon
A male Leopard and a female Lion

3. Hybrid Pheasant
A dull one. A pheasant crossbred with another type of pheasant, resulting in a different coloured pheasant. Thats not exciting enough. I want to see a pheasant with antlers or something...

2. A Wolphin.
A bottlenose Dolphin and a False Killer Whale.
(Not sure what they mean by 'false'. "Ive just been shagged by an insincere whale"? A Prosthetic Whale? Anyway, if a killer whale wants to shag you, lets face it, youre shagged...

1. Ti-Liger/Ti-Tigon/Li-Tigon/Li-Liger
A hybrid amongst hybrids. a crossbreed of male Tiger and female Liger/Tigon or vice versa, or something.

Some great pictures on here
www.hemmy.net/2006/06/19/top-10-hybrid-animals/

[oh2bhappy]

** 8. Iron Age Pig
Crossbreed of a Domestic Tamworth Pig and Wild Boar. Apparently they make super sausages. (Well the pigs dont personally 'make' the sausages, well they do, but not with...forget it...)**

Brilliant!

[shazzz]

Cheers mama....

what if you get a hybrid bumping uglies with another hybrid?

Now what sort of creature would that make lol

[alfie]

I think we already have a few of them hun ;D

[abcde]

I don't think this hypothesis would stand up to scrutiny.

The major problem being that hybrids tend to be sterile. So a breeding population could not occur.

Even if some could reproduce, large scale genetic change in one generation would virtually guarantee that the new species would be less well adapted to survive (look up 'saltation' for the explanation) than either of the parent species (and by implication rival species) so they wouldn't survive easily.

[Linkev]

messybeast.com/

For your reading pleasure.

As The Inquisitor has said, most hybrid animals/chimeras_{[not the oceanic organism]} tend to be sterile, and therefore cannot reproduce. With the exception of the tigon/liger females.

On another note, 'new' species throughout the prehistoric era until now are nothing more than the initial genus evolving in order to better survive in its surroundings. Especially because of changing food sources, climate, and terrain. It's not because of inter species mating and offspring, but evolution itself.

[Meercat]

Indeed, but from what I read, Hybrids tend to be sterile. There are cases where they are not. An interesting bit on Wikipedia:

They may have a beneficial combination of traits allowing them to exploit new habitats or to succeed in a marginal habitat where the two parent species are disadvantaged

If this were the case, and both males and females were fertile (as is possible) Then I think the hypothesis would stand.

[abcde]

monstermeercat said:

Indeed, but from what I read, Hybrids tend to be sterile. There are cases where they are not. An interesting bit on Wikipedia:

They may have a beneficial combination of traits allowing them to exploit new habitats or to succeed in a marginal habitat where the two parent species are disadvantaged

If this were the case, and both males and females were fertile (as is possible) Then I think the hypothesis would stand.

IF it were the case AND both females and males were fertile.....?

That is NOT the case and both males and females are NOT fertile - would you care to expand your hypothesis by providing some evidence rather that rely on conjecture?

[Meercat]

abcde said:

monstermeercat said:

Indeed, but from what I read, Hybrids tend to be sterile. There are cases where they are not. An interesting bit on Wikipedia:



If this were the case, and both males and females were fertile (as is possible) Then I think the hypothesis would stand.

IF it were the case AND both females and males were fertile.....?

That is NOT the case and both males and females are NOT fertile - would you care to expand your hypothesis by providing some evidence rather that rely on conjecture?

Nope, quite happy with conjecture at the moment.

[abcde]

monstermeercat said:

Nope, quite happy with conjecture at the moment.

Well I'm gobsmacked!! ;D

[Meercat]

abcde said:

monstermeercat said:

Nope, quite happy with conjecture at the moment.

Well I'm gobsmacked!! ;D

I aim to please!

[abcde]

monstermeercat said:

I aim to please!

So do I - my aim's not too good though.

[Meercat]

abcde said:

monstermeercat said:

I aim to please!

So do I - my aim's not too good though.

Ahh me neither...I may aim to please, but generally miss.....

[pcdunn2005]

Today I saw a picture of a two-faced calf (black and white) on the Internet Explorer home page, does this count as a "strange animal sighting"?

Yes, I know, the poor thing's a result of a mutation, not a hybrid, but it's strangely interesting all the same. Last year there were at least two different cases of "two-faced" kittens being born, which is somewhat frightening.

I think we should notify Patrick Stewart's character from "Eleventh Hour" to come investigate what it all means. (Only half-joking, really...)

[diggergig]

You haven't seen my dog.