video thumbnail 3:05
Why Can't Mules Have Babies?

2016-08-23

[public] 7.27M views, 122K likes, dislikes audio only

channel thumbMinuteEarth

Animals of different species rarely get it on, and when they do, they rarely produce offspring. But even rarer than the ligers, zonkeys, camas, and beefalo of the world are hybrid animals capable of making babies of their own.

If you liked this week’s video, we think you might also like:

The Blitzkreiglr YouTube guys play the game Hybrid Animals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9WS5cd_59I

LEARN MORE

**************

To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

- Hybrid organisms: The offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera.

- Mitosis: A process of cell division that produces copies of the original cell.

- Meiosis: A process of cell dividion that produces new daughter cells with half the chromosome number of the original cell.

- Sex cell, or gamete: a cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization (conception) in organisms that sexually reproduce.

- Hemiclonal transmission: The rare occurence in which only maternal DNA gets passed along during the creation of sex cells.

Species featured in this video:

- Mule, is the offspring of a male donkey (jack) and a female horse (mare)

- Liger, is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a female tiger (Panthera tigris)

- Zonkey, is the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. Zebra hybrids are generally known as zebroids

- Beefalo, also known as cattalo, is the offspring of a domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and an American buffalo (Bison bison)

- Cama, is the offspring of a male dromedary camel and a female llama.

CREDITS

*********

Script Writer: David Goldenberg

Script Editor: Emily Elert

Video Illustrator: Chad Geran

Video Director: Emily Elert

Video Narrator: Emily Elert

With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Ever Salazar, Omkar Bhagat, Peter Reich, Rachel Becker

Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder

OTHER CREDITS

*****************

Liger Hercules - Ed Quinn

https://goo.gl/A8zgxO

Zonkey - Flickr user Leogirly4life

https://goo.gl/QAcza0

Cama - TaylorLlamas.com

http://goo.gl/YCY3Zd

Beefalo - Noah's Ark Animal

Sanctuary

http://www.noahs-ark.org/

SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH

**************************

If you like what we do, you can help us!:

- Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth

- Our merch: http://dftba.com/minuteearth

- Our book: https://minuteearth.com/books

- Share this video with your friends and family

- Leave us a comment (we read them!)

OUR LINKS

************

Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth

TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth

Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth

Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth

Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth

Website | https://minuteearth.com

Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176

REFERENCES

**************

Ryder, O., Chemnick, L., Bowling, A., Benirschke, K. (1985). Male mule foal qualifies as the offspring of a female mule and Jack donkey. Journal of Heredity 76 (379-381). Retrieved from http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/76/5/379

C.J. Zhao, Y.H. Qin, X.H. Lee, Ch. Wu (2006). Molecular and cytogenetic paternity testing of a male offspring of a hinny. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics,123: 403-405. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17177697

Bucholz (2013). Colorado miracle mule foal lived short life, but was well-loved.The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/2013/08/16/colorado-miracle-mule-foal-lived-short-life-but-was-well-loved/

Millon, L. (2016). Personal Communication.

Antczak, D. (2016). Personal Communication.


How To (Literally) Save Earth by MinuteEarth
/youtube/video/AOefA-bSduM
MinuteEarth is creating YouTube Videos | Patreon Help us make more videos!
https://www.patreon.com/minuteearth
MinuteEarth Science and stories about our awesome planet! Our staff: Lizah van der Aart, Sarah Berman, Cameron Duke, Arcadi Garcia, David Goldenberg, Melissa Hayes, Alex Reich, Henry Reich, Peter Reich, Ever Salazar, Leonardo Souza, Kate Yoshida and Jasper Palfree. MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
/youtube/channel/UCeiYXex_fwgYDonaTcSIk6w
Support us at Patreon! patreon.com
https://www.patreon.com/minuteearth
Why Do Heart Attacks Cause *Arm* Pain? 113,938 views
/youtube/video/4DF94Wvtekk