Just for fun - Hybrid geese!

[sourland]

'Pop', your ganders should be fertile.

 

[Lollipop]

'Pop', your ganders should be fertile.

Well, that's a relief. Sure didn't wanna buy another gander. Thanks for the encouragement.......Pop

 

[AquaEyes]

They are sterile "mules." The offspring have an odd number of chromosomes (like a zipper that has "zipped" off-kilter so the two sides of the zipper don't match up), so it can't breed with either species nor even with other mules. It's remarkable how much they look like domestic geese, though.
Take a look at this Wikipedia page with a photo of a AnserXBranta (Canada) hybrid that looks so much more like a mix of both species. Scroll to the part on Goose hyrids: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebird_hybrids
I wonder why there such a pronounced difference? Maybe has something to do with which parent is the Canada and which is the Anser?

I have read some interesting information on the nature of "mules." The Wiki site above stated that in mammals, a mule male is sterile but the female can produce an embryo (resulting from mating with a "pure" species not another mule). I have seen pictures of a pregnant female mule or hinny that had been bred to a stallion. But the embryo will not survive to produce a live, viable offspring. But, in birds it's the male that may have viable sperm while the female is sterile. Fascinating.

Found a site with cool photos: http://www.gobirding.eu/Photos/HybridGeese.php
And another with some discussion on mule waterfowl (scroll down the page to see "The Mongrel a Superb Goose): http://www.summagallicana.it/chatteringongallus/correspondence/286.htm

"See also -- Haldane's Rule" to see why male hybrid mammals are more often sterile, while females are more likely sterile in hybrid birds.

 

[GardenerGal]

Geese that are the same genus but different species or subspecies can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. So, Anser anser and Anser cygnoides interbreed and are fertile. They share the same genus and so are already very closely related. Coyotes, wolves and dogs are this way as well: all share the genus Canis though each is a different species (C. domesticus, C. lupus, C. latrans).

But Canada geese are genus Branta, and both the domestic species of geese are genus Anser. They are just closely enough related that they can reproduce for one generation of offspring (F1), but their offspring are infertile. Even if the male offspring have viable sperm, they have an odd number of chromosomes that can't match up with the chromosomes of either parent species or other offspring. If I understand correctly (thanks for the extra information, AE), just like the hinny/mule female may have viable ova that may start an embryo, it will not be born alive and will either self-abort, be stillborn or die shortly after. I'm not sure how viable sperm in an F1 cross-genus offspring would manifest itself, only that no viable young will result from its impregnation into an ovum.

 

[mickmc]

I see some very similar looking geese in French Creek N W Pa. By now you know if any off the hybrids were fertile. As you have the opportunity to see actual offspring grow up you know. Has any produced offspring?

 

[newgoosegal]

Wow, what beautiful pictures, and what a fascinating thread! One of our geese is a piilgrim and toulouse cross, and if I'm reading this right, she would not be able to produce liveable viable eggs, even if crossed with a purebred gander?

 

[flockman]

Newgoosegal your goose should be able to breed and have viable eggs. If it was a Canada goose and pilgrim goose cross it would not be fertile. To relate this to horses a pilgrim and toulouse cross would be like a quarter horse crossed with a thoroughbred. It would be completely fertile. If you crossed a horse with a donkey you would get a mule or hinny which are infertile. That is what it would be like if you bred a canada goose and toulouse or pilgrim.

Your goose should be fine.

 

[fire pirate]

So... I was given 2 geese that were suppose to be Africans but look like pilgrims. I bought a true Africans gander big diffrence would their offspring end up sterile too?

 

[fire pirate]

Here is the girls and gander by them

 

[Jennsbirds]

They're so pretty, all of them.

I never thought hybrid geese could look so cool.