Anyone ever heard of this?

[MissPrissy]

The sterility and fertility is generally like a Mule but there have been reports of some that beat the odds. I think there is a higher chance of fertility depending on which breed is the male and which is the female. But in general they are considered to be sterile.

It is sort of like when a goat and a sheep breed. They have different numbers of chromosomes which usually causes death at birth. In very rare instances some live. I can't remember if it is New Zealand or some place else (sorry NZers if I am wrong) but someone somewhere has managed to raise a small herd of that cross that lived. They are wildly oversexual animals and dangerous to be around at breeding season.

Just because it is possible to do something doesn't always make it a good idea to follow through with it.

Those guinea crosses look like buzzards or vultures to me. I have always hated the way they look. I don't understand the novelty behind wanting to raise them.

 

[kodiakchicken]

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I agree 100%!!! The first thing I thought was "Why?" And then all I could think of was that those naked neck/guinea crosses look just like vultures. Ick.

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

MissPrissy, I just thought of how neat it was that a peacock and a guinea could cross and sometimes successfully produce offspring.
Never said I wanted to raise them

 

[MissPrissy]

Hahaha! If you did raised them and managed to get one that was somewhat fertile, what in the world would you do with the pitiful thing?

 

[ticks]

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She would give them to me

 

[Kev]

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Not necessarily. Many species with different chromosome counts can successfully hybridize, and in some instances can even regularly produce fertile offspring. For example domestic and Prezwalski(sp?) horses have different chromosome counts.. yet they are perfectly capable of producing hybrids.. and it's not rare for the hybrids to be fertile either.

It is true that the results can be quite different on alternating on the parent species- mallard muscovy crosses produce moulards if bred one way, but if bred another way the male hybrids come out with huge testes and are "mating maniacs" even though they are sterile.


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That's your opinion. I don't see what's "not a good idea" about this, particularly in this case the hybrids are normally sterile so "contamination" can't be used as an excuse.

Hybrids used to be an useful way of figuring out "how related" species are to each other.. so in that case it was very educational- which is always a good thing IMO.

Even nowdays I don't see anything wrong with someone trying to produce hybrids like these. Why not? There still could be something to learn from hybrids.. such as finding out the genetics of color, patterns, feathering.. such as is the white found in chickens and peafowl the same as the white found in guineafowl? Hybridizing is one way to find that out.

I personally found the naked neck hybrids interesting for the question: Will the naked neck trait show up in the hybrids, and if so, how does it express? Particularly as guineas acquire the naked face and neck in their adult form, does the naked neck effect that in any way or not such as increasing the naked areas or not..

Who knows what things someone else would be interested in finding out from hybrids.. why try to limit someone else's desire to explore and learn..

 

[Kev]

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Such a bird would be VALUABLE to science! Figure out how patterns, colors, feathering develop etc...!

It might be possible to use those birds to observe the possible evolution of guinea spotting, how the "early peafowl" may have looked like.. how did the peacock tail get started and expand... the possibilities....!

 

[MissPrissy]

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Not necessarily. Many species with different chromosome counts can successfully hybridize, and in some instances can even regularly produce fertile offspring. For example domestic and Prezwalski(sp?) horses have different chromosome counts.. yet they are perfectly capable of producing hybrids.. and it's not rare for the hybrids to be fertile either.

It is true that the results can be quite different on alternating on the parent species- mallard muscovy crosses produce moulards if bred one way, but if bred another way the male hybrids come out with huge testes and are "mating maniacs" even though they are sterile.

You took my quote out of context. I was referring specifically to sheep-goat crossings in that example.

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

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Probably prop a chair up next to its' cage and laugh at it all day

 

[LinckHillPoultry]

I do think they are fascinating though. I'm sure I'll never see a real one, but just the thought of it is really neat