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From: collier@ariel.unm.edu (uncia uncia)
Newsgroups: rec.pets,sci.bio
Subject: Re: What is a species?
Keywords: artificial selection makes species identity meaningless
Message-ID: <1562@ariel.unm.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 90 15:10:01 GMT
References: <2495@leah.Albany.Edu> <1990Feb8.100425.16932@newcastle.ac.uk>
Reply-To: collier@ariel.unm.edu.UUCP (uncia uncia)
Distribution: rec.pets sci.bio
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lines: 33

In article <2495@leah.Albany.Edu> gmr044@leah.Albany.Edu (Gregg Recer) writes:
>
>>In article  <2285@uwm.edu>  debbie@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Debbie Forest)
>>writes:
>>
>>However, those offspring would then be
>>infertile.  This same kind of mating barrier occurs in the
>>horse/donkey/mule system. 
>I'm not convinced that a dog-wolf cross *would* be infertile.  Do
>you have any references?

1) i heard on the news the other day that even the horse/donkey/mule system
isn't as closed as has been assumed for centuries. a jenny became pregnant
somehow and successfully foaled. i don't know any more than that.

2) wolves and dogs can interbreed, and their offspring are fertile. this
is well documented in a variety of general references on the wolf, and
i have observed it directly myself. case in point: my 50% wolf, 50%
malamute female escaped during her second heat and brought home a
litter of puppies.  this is bad, because wolf hybrids are *very* hard
to place safely. fortunately the puppies were only 25% wolf, which is
about the highest proportion one can keep without requiring a huge
extra effort on the part of the owner. anyway, she, at least, proved
herself fertile.
-- 
Michael Collier		University of New Mexico Computing Center
collier@ariel.unm.edu	2701 Campus Blvd.
(505) 277 8039		Albuquerque, NM  87131

			(Home:	1160 Don Pasqual NW
				Los Lunas, NM 87031)

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