Are these land giants same species or is it a case of colobus monkey to squirrel monkey ?
"Although successful hybridisation between African and Asian Elephant species is highly unlikely in the wild, in 1978 at Chester Zoo, an Asian elephant cow gave birth to a hybrid calf sired by an African elephant bull (the old terms are used here as these events pre-date the current classifications). "Motty", the resulting hybrid male calf, had an African elephant’s cheeks, their ears (large with pointed lobes) and legs (longer and slimmer), but the toenail numbers, (5 for each front foot, 4 hind) and the single trunk finger of an Asian elephant. His wrinkled trunk was like that of an African elephant. His forehead was sloping with one dome and two smaller domes behind it. The body was African in type, but had an Asian-type centre hump and an African-type rear hump. The calf died of infection 12 days later[69]. It is preserved as a mounted specimen at the British Natural History Museum, London. There are unconfirmed rumours of three other hybrid elephants born in zoos or circuses; all are said to have been deformed and none survived."
since both elephant species have the same number of chromosomes, one of the major barriers to hybrid fertility does not exist. If an hybrid succeeds in becoming an adult, it is potentially fertile.
February 1st, 2010 at 4:06 pm
They don’t breed and aren’t in the same genus, let alone the same species. A closer relative of the Indian elephant was the extinct mammoth.
References :
February 1st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
"Although successful hybridisation between African and Asian Elephant species is highly unlikely in the wild, in 1978 at Chester Zoo, an Asian elephant cow gave birth to a hybrid calf sired by an African elephant bull (the old terms are used here as these events pre-date the current classifications). "Motty", the resulting hybrid male calf, had an African elephant’s cheeks, their ears (large with pointed lobes) and legs (longer and slimmer), but the toenail numbers, (5 for each front foot, 4 hind) and the single trunk finger of an Asian elephant. His wrinkled trunk was like that of an African elephant. His forehead was sloping with one dome and two smaller domes behind it. The body was African in type, but had an Asian-type centre hump and an African-type rear hump. The calf died of infection 12 days later[69]. It is preserved as a mounted specimen at the British Natural History Museum, London. There are unconfirmed rumours of three other hybrid elephants born in zoos or circuses; all are said to have been deformed and none survived."
since both elephant species have the same number of chromosomes, one of the major barriers to hybrid fertility does not exist. If an hybrid succeeds in becoming an adult, it is potentially fertile.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant