[Eve-Lynn]

If you had a dog bred with a wolf would your dog's coat change colour with the seasons??? Maybe a goofy question but curious

 

[Elaine]

Mine never changed color.

 

[Wolfie]

When I cared for a 95% Wolf/Malamute 5yrs ago I never noticed his coat changing color with the seasons.

 

[pupresq]

Wolf pups that start off dark often end up sort of a silver color (black phase) but that's an age thing rather than a seasonal one.

 

[Powell]

You'd have a lot of blowing coat, but colors don't change after adulthood. And you'd have a Wolfdog. Right now most of the animals at Full Moon Farm are blowing coat. I groomed Oengus....mostly Malamute and maybe a touch of Shepherd and Wolf. Save hair for sending off and getting woven into something. I could have groomed and removed hair for an hour......
The term hybrid means they can't reproduce....and BOY CAN THEY REPRODUCE. The wolf and dog have been placed in the same genus ( did I use the right spelling) for some time.


Powell

 

[Shandril2]

Mine appeared slightly darker in the summer.
The most notable difference was the amount of coat. In the winter she looked a good 50% larger because of all the thickness.

 

[AbbyK9]

Quote:The term hybrid means they can't reproduce....and BOY CAN THEY REPRODUCE.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this sentence, but how does hybrid mean they can't reproduce?

 

[Maryn]

Generally, hybrids are sterile.
Tigon/Liger, Hobra/Zorse, Mule/Hinny...typically the offspring of interspecies mating are unable to reproduce because of the different # of chromosomes each parent has.

Wolf dogs are different because wolves and dogs are so close in genetic make-up that they can and do reproduce.

 

[tracyc]

One of the defining characteristics of a "hybrid" animal is sterility. Conversely, a defining characteristic of specieshood is the ability to produce fertile young. If two individuals can breed and create a fertile offspring, they are by definition of the same species.

Horse + donkey = mule (hybrid, sterile)

Dog + wolf = wolf dog (not a technical hybrid, because they can reproduce)

 

[GunnerJones]

My Sable GSDs change in color, nothing dramatic but you can tell

 

[AbbyK9]

I must have a different dictionary. My dictionary defines "hybrid" as:

1. the offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species, or genera, especially as produced through human manipulation for specific genetic characteristics.

Doesn't say anything about having to be two different species only, or having to be sterile.

 

[Maryn]

It's not the definition of hybrid, it's the nature of what one is []

 

[tracyc]

I'm not sure that brief dictionary listing includes everything you might want to know about hybridization. If you want to know more, this wiki article is a bit more complete, and will explain that the preponderance of animal hybrids are, indeed, sterile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_%28biology%29

Every example listed at this site of "examples of hybrid animals" are sterile, with the exception of "dog hybrids" used as a term for cross-breeding of dogs. But I don't know of anyone (scientific or otherwise) who uses the term "hybrid" to talk about the offspring of two different dog breeds.

 

[Mary Jane]

Well, it's a little more complicated than that. Hybrids may or may not be fertile. In plants hybridization is actually quite common. In animals, it really depends on the species involved:


Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2007 Dec;17(6):513-8.
A genomic view of introgression and hybrid speciation.
Baack EJ, Rieseberg LH.

Hybridization in plants and animals is more common and has more complex outcomes than previously realized. Genome-wide analyses of introgression in organisms ranging from oaks to sunflowers to fruit flies show that a substantial fraction of their genomes are permeable to alleles from related species. Hybridization can lead to rapid genomic changes, including chromosomal rearrangements, genome expansion, differential gene expression, and gene silencing, some of which are mediated by transposable elements. These genomic changes may lead to beneficial new phenotypes, and selection for fertility and ecological traits may in turn alter genome structure. Dramatic increases in the availability of genomic tools will produce a new understanding of the genetic nature of species and will resolve a century-old debate over the basis of hybrid vigor, while the natural recombinants found in hybrid zones will permit genetic mapping of species differences and reproductive barriers in nonmodel organisms.

Mary Jane

 

[Maryn]

plant hybridization is much different... they aren't mammals lol

I've always wondered if a chimp/human offspring would be sterile or not. We're pretty close genetically, but do possess a different number of chromosomes.

 

[Mary Jane]

A quick look on Medline came up with hybridization among apes of different genus (one step higher than species). Animal hybrids occur in the wild and can be fertile. I really can't guess how common it is.

Mary Jane

 

[AbbyK9]

Quote:But I don't know of anyone (scientific or otherwise) who uses the term "hybrid" to talk about the offspring of two different dog breeds.

Pretty much everyone who has "designer dogs" refers to them as "hybrids". There's even a Hybrid Dog Registry. And, of course, the dictionary.

 

[tracyc]

Well there you go. I cannot argue with the dictionary.

Where I come from, when people are talking about hybrid animals we aren't talking about fruit flies, sunflowers, or any of the other "exceptions to the rule." it's not meaningful to split semantic hairs with you or the dictionary. I understand the generally accepted and commonly used meaning of hybrid. And now you do too.

 

[Guest]

While I won't presume to state what people "understand" I will add this. In the wild hybrids of polar bears and grizzlies have been found. They are different species but the resulting offspring is not sterile. Hybrids of lynxes and bobcats have also been found neither are they sterile. So yes, it depends as MaryJane said and is not carved in stone to be completely "understood" to be any one thing or another. Hybrid merely means a cross of one thing and another. Anything beyond that is incidental.

 

[GSDolch]

I think people in the scientific field are just to lazy to find a proper term for hybrid

I remember years ago that the actual term for hybrid (at least it seems to be) was sterile.

Like anything, things are found out and change over time. To bad definitions dont changes as quickly. lol