As the saying goes, a mule is a horse, pulled out for a walk. Many people do not know that in fact, mules are a hybrid species of donkeys and horses, not a separate species. Similarly, there are two kinds of wolfhounds we often call them. One is a literal hybrid of a wolf and a dog, which is a hybrid wolf; the other is a wolf dog, which is not a descendant of wolves and dogs, but just a dog that looks like a wolf.
Then many people will wonder, wolves and dogs are obviously two kinds of creatures, why can they cross the wolf dogs?
Actually! Dogs are originally one of the subspecies of gray wolves, and even dogs are nicknamed "house wolves". Subspecies and pures are generally only slightly different in morphological structure or physiological function. Overall, the genetic similarity between the two species reached 99.8%.
Moreover, the chromosomes of dogs and wolves are both 39 pairs, and when meiosis is performed, the male and female give half of the chromosomes to form a new embryonic cell. The 39 chromosomes of the mother and the 39 chromosomes from the father can be paired successfully, giving birth to a wolfhound containing 39 pairs of chromosomes. So between them, there is no reproductive isolation.
So, can hyenas and dogs hybridize?
Here, let's first understand what a hyena is. Hyenas and dogs are only one word apart, but they are very different. First of all, hyenas are mammals, hyenas. The hyena family here is not a canine family, and even the hyena family and the canine family are very far apart, if you have to compare, the hyena family is more biased towards the cat family. Hyenas are social animals with groups ranging from a few to dozens of members.
As in the above information, the key to the fact that hyenas and dogs cannot cross is that they are not a species. Between different species, there will be reproductive isolation. When two species are unable to produce reproductive offspring, reproductive isolation is said to exist between the two species. Like mules, although they are also the offspring of horses and donkeys, mules themselves are incapable of reproduction. That is to say, the mule cannot continue to give birth to the mule, but can only produce the mule by hybridization again. Therefore, mules are not a new species.
Similarly, hyenas and dogs interbreed even under human compulsion. It is also difficult for them to give birth to offspring, and even if they reproduce, they will certainly not be able to reproduce. The reproductive isolation between hyenas and dogs dooms the hybrid breeds of the two to be unable to reproduce.
Second, humans are currently unable to interbreed hyenas with dogs. For example, mestizo wolfhounds can exist because they do not have reproductive isolation, and one is to artificially promote their hybridization. We usually keep the dog in estrus and the wolf together, resulting in a mixed-race wolf dog; or a female dog in estrus meets a stray wolf and gives birth to a child. But as long as it is artificially hybridized, it requires humans to domesticate animals for a long time. After many generations of captivity, the wild nature of the animals is severely degraded, and it is possible to cross.
For hyenas, none of these methods work. Because, to date, hyenas have never been domesticated by humans. Even hyenas in zoos are still wild, with strong hostility and aggression toward all intruders, and meeting is a fierce battle. Therefore, under natural conditions, hyenas can never cross with dogs. And artificial domestication still needs a long way to go.
In addition, in nature, there are no species that can cross with hyenas. There are two subspecies in the hyena family, the hyena subfamily and the coyote subfamily. At this point, the two subfamilies begin to differentiate. Their genes are no longer similar, revealing a very obvious reproductive isolation. At the same time, the genes of the three hyena species under the hyena subfamily are also very different, and they cannot produce reproductive offspring.
That is, not only can hyenas not cross with dogs, but also different hyena subspecies cannot cross between them.
However, as the "second oldest in Africa", hyenas have never been friends of humans. Hyenas that like to forage at night can often make more than a dozen sounds, strengthening the connection between populations by shouting. However, these abrupt howls often make the surrounding residents creepy and unable to sleep. Especially during the estrus period, the hyena's bark is extremely sharp, and it is even more frightening.
As a result, in many parts of Africa, hyenas have also become a symbol of death. Legend has it that as long as hyenas appear in which area, death will be ushered in. With the improvement of today's living standards, African people have a new way of dealing with hyenas. In Africa, hyenas are fed exclusively, and hyenas that are well fed will no longer attack humans. As a result, a new profession was born - hyena feeding people. It has even evolved into a way of traveling, where tourists can also feed their hyenas themselves under the guidance of professional feeders.
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