Whats a hybrid?

' A hybrid is the combination of two or more different things, aimed at achieving a particular objective or goal.... Inbiology the offspring resulting from cross-breeding of different plants or animals ' | Extracted from Wikipedia |

1. In general usage, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the mating of two distinctly homozygousindividuals
2. a genetic hybrid carries two different alleles of the same gene
3. a structural hybrid results from the fusion of gametes that have differing structure in at least one chromosome, as a result ofstructural abnormalities
4. a numerical hybrid results from the fusion of gametes having different haploid numbers of chromosomes
5. a permanent hybrid is a situation where only the heterozygous genotype occurs, because all homozygous combinations are lethal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to look at how hybrids adopt features from their parents, like which dominant traits they pick up and which get left out, and for that I have found some hybrid animals to analyze.

1. Liger/Tigon | Most popular among the hybrids, the Ligers are crossbreeds between a male lion while Tigons are crossbreeds between a male tiger and a female lion. Ligers are the worlds largest cats, while the Tigons are prone towards dwarfism and are usually smaller than either of their parents.

2. Wolf Dog | This dog wolf hybrid is not known when it will display a wolf behaviour or dog behaviour or something in between. The wolf is a shy animal depending on nuances in body language, facial expression and on hunting skills to survive. Their jaws are much stronger than those of a dog and are often used to exert dominance.

3. Zebroid | A zorse is a crossbred horse and a zebra. A zonkey is the offspring of a donkey and a zebra and a zony is the result of crossbreeding a pony to a zebra. All these three are called zebroids - defined as a cross between a zebra and any equid. Zebroids are preferred over zebra for practical uses such as riding because of its body shape.

Zorse

Zonkey

Zony

4. Cama | A hybrid between a camel and a llama. They are born via artificial insemination due to the huge difference in sizes of the animals which disallow natural breeding. A cama usually has the short ears and long tails of a camel but the cloven hooves of a llama. Also most noticeably is the absence of the hump.

Rama the cama at 3 yrs (young adult)

5. Leopon | The result of breeding a male leopard and a female lion. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion while the rest of the bodies carries similarities to leopards. Leopons are larger than leopards and likes to climb and enjoy water.

6. Hybrid Pheasant | The golden pheasant has commonly been crossed with the similar Lady Amherst's Pheasant. The result is a hybrid with distinguished colours from its parents.

Golden Pheasant

A Lady Amherst Pheasant

Hybrid Pheasant

7. Wolphin | A crossbreed of a false killer whale and a bottlenose dolphin. A wolphin's size, colour and share are intermediate between the parent species. The first captive wolphin was Kekaimalu, which shows mixed heritage even in its teeth: bottlenose dolphins have 88, false killer whales have 44 and Kekaimalu has 66.

8. Ti-Liger, Ti-Tigon, Li-Tigon, Li-Liger | it is a hybrif among the hybrids. It is a cross breed between a male tiger and a female liger/tigon or a male lion with a female tigon/liger. They are extremely rare. In the case of t-iligers, they have unusual striping where it breaks up and display a blotchy appearance. Since they are 3/4 tiger, their characteristics inhibit more of those of a tiger than a lion.

From this intensive look at hybrid animals, I have gained much more knowledge on traits and characteristics that are passed on to the offspring, and what you think is a dominant feature in an animal like the camels hump, is not necessarily a dominant trait between the hybrid.