Cross Breeds

why cross breeds between big cats cannot survive?

like the liger and the other crosses between the big cats...why do they not usually survive while crosses between dogs have no problem? is tiger- lion equivalent to indian-chinese jack russell-german shepard in terms of the genetic similarity or tts why they cant survive and are sterile like the mule or donkey?

Public Comments

1. It is not crossbreeding when you mate different species. Most popular thought is dogs are all one species with a very large range of phenotypic variation (they look different). lions and tigers are completely different species not breeds of felines.
2. All dogs are the same species, regardless of breed. It doesn't matter if it's a Chihuahua or a Great Dane, they're both still dogs. Whilst it would be difficult for these two to breed naturally because of the size difference, if you used artificial insemination you could still produce fertile puppies. Lions and tigers are different species - hybrids between different species are usually sterile, though not always (some female ligers and tigons are fertile). However, that doesn't mean they can't survive. Ligers and tigons survive perfectly well in zoos that have them, it's just that they can't breed. By the way, donkeys aren't sterile. They are a species in their own right - you mate a male donkey to a female donkey and you get a baby donkey. A mule is a hybrid, a cross between a male donkey and female horse, and is usually sterile (though again there are occasional fertile females). You can only make a mule by breeding a donkey with a horse. If you breed a male horse and female donkey, the offspring is called a hinny.