Friday, July 16, 2010

Can you breed a Cheetah with say a lion, tiger, panther or leopard?

I know those 4 big cats can breed together but what about cheetahs? What would the offspring look like?

Can you breed a Cheetah with say a lion, tiger, panther or leopard?
Nope, cheetahs are very divergent from the others.





It is nearly impossible to breed cheetahs to each other in captivity.
Reply:Hi. Assuming you could catch one they should be able to inter-breed. The offspring would probably not be fertile and how it would look is very hard to predict.
Reply:Question: I was thinking about the inbreeding that has happened to cheetahs over the years and i was wondering if you could breed a cheetah with a cougar and then add the offspring to the cheetah population and get some diversity in the cheetahs DNA. is it worth a shot or just wishful thinking.





Answer: Cheetahs are cougars are different species - they are in different genus - physiologically, there is no way that they can breed as they are totally different. Unlike the lion and tiger - they are in the same genus. A good way of understanding this is by looking at the cat tree wall in our Education Centre which shows the different branches of species by color (they are color coded).
Reply:It is probably possibly to hybridize all the large cats - but they won't naturally interbreed. They are different species, and by scientific definition, species is defined by a group of animals that only breed with each other (no interbreeding). However, if you did invitrofertilization with these animals, most likely it would work and you could get a cross between a cheetah and a lion, or whatever. But what's the point? This same idea is how you get "mutts", or mules for that matter. Mules are a hybrid cross between a horse and a donkey (and is sterile). Anyhoo - hope this answers your question.
Reply:No, cheetahs are very different from the other big cats. They are in their very own genus. They are the only big cat that has semi-retractable claws. Usually only closely related big cats can interbreed, but the offspring is sterile.
Reply:Nope.
Reply:it depends on whether or not a cheetah is in the same genus as any of your options all are wildcats but chances are that even if is scietifically possible they most likely wont want to breed


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