The Boundaries of a Species and What We Can Do to Protect Them
A mother tiger leans against the wall at the far side of the enclosure. She’s pregnant, her underside is bloated and big – too big. It seems impossible that she was able to bear that weight for months. The size of her belly tips the tigress over, and she lurched to the side, her only support the discolored cement on which she rests her head.
A contraction hits and, her whole torso sucks inwards as her face contorts in pain, and she lets out a long, strangled wheeze. The contractions keep coming, but there is no sign of cubs. The labor has already taken too long; the half-lion cubs are too big to be delivered by their tiger mother. Muffled murmurs and whispers utter the words Caesarean section, a death sentence for the tigress.
This useless death and unnecessary suffering are the results of the inhumane breeding of lions and tigers. The lion genes grow the cubs to unmanageable sizes, and the tiger mother is physically incapable of delivering a cub that large.
A Caesarean section almost always means death for the mother, especially in unaccredited zoos where interspecies breeding is commonplace. The animals themselves experience great suffering at the cost of human entertainment. The deliberate and artificial creation of hybrids between species should be banned.
An unnatural process, interspecies breeding disrupts natural law. Per this law, a species is defined as a reproductively isolated organism, meaning that it can only reproduce with its own members.
There are many reasons as to why a species is incapable of reproducing with another; some of these occur before conception referred to as pre-zygotic isolating mechanisms, and others occur after, as the embryo develops. The latter is referred to as post-zygotic isolating mechanisms.
If the genetic material on the chromosomes is too different, the embryo dies shortly after being conceived; this is an example of zygotic mortality. Sperm exchange may take place but the embryo might also never form because the difference in the number of chromosomes is too great.
This is called gamete incompatibility. Further, these animals might never cross paths in the wild. This is an example of habitat isolation.
While they may share a genus, such as a lion and a tiger, under natural circumstances they would never encounter each other: a tiger roaming the jungles of India would never find itself mating with a Serengeti-dwelling lion.
It is not merely an unfortunate circumstance that nature does not allow such chimeras to occur; there are consequences, and grave ones, devastating the pitiful animal.
Many may argue that these hybrids have, in fact, occurred in nature and must, therefore, be allowed to reproduce artificially, but this is a vast oversimplification.
If these species manage to reproduce in the wild, the chromosomal differences are not as large because they were sufficiently similar to produce surviving offspring.
Consequently, the resulting animals do not suffer as many health consequences. Further, the offspring of two different species are almost always infertile, such as the mule; this is nature’s way of restoring the disrupted balance and assuring the damage is not passed on.
This is referred to as hybrid sterility. If such breeding occurs, it is often the result of human intervention even if the cause seems distant.
Exemplifying this is the “grolar bear,” a deceivingly innocent nickname for a frightful product of climate change. Due to rising sea levels, a human inflicted tragedy, polar bears have found themselves forced to migrate south into grizzly bear territory. Here, these two bears have mated by what seems to be natural means but are actually just another result of human intrusion.
Not only is hybridization completely unnatural, but it is completely suffering for the hybrid animal. To say that hybrids animals have a future is laughable. The director of public relations of Big Cat Rescue, the largest sanctuary dedicated solely to big cats, Susan Bass, comments on hybrid cats:
“They are bred for lives in a cage. They’re never going to be released into the wild. There is no wild for these cats” (Bittel).
Hybrids such as these cats are born with a plethora of crippling health problems. Ligers, for example, suffer from gigantism. They grow uncontrollably, their size far exceeding the capacities of their heart. Their heart fails and they die an unnecessary and premature death.
Conversely, zebroids suffer from dwarfism, another potentially fatal condition. Animal hybrids are also subject to other harrowing illnesses. They have an increased risk of cancer, arthritis, and genetic abnormalities such as a cleft palate and crossed eyes.
These animals can also experience depression due to the chromosomal differences in their genes. They are in constant pain both mentally and physically to meet our own demands.
There is no reason for hybrids to exist. They are poorly suited for a life in the wild and are forever prisoners within the walls of an enclosure. They are unfairly subject to a life of sickly torment. Hybrids are exploited to generate profit for the barbaric zoos that breed them. Looking at the bigger picture, we can look towards supporting shelters with our time or donations and avoiding supporting breeders.
Sources
AnimalMedia. “Ligers: A Cruelty Unveiled.” YouTube. 24 Jun 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKYILLEdy5s.
Bittel, Jason. “The Sad Truth About Zonkeys and Ligers.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 19 June 2015, https://slate.com/technology/2015/06/zonkeys-ligers-the-sad-truth-about-animal-hybrids.html.
Clark, Mary Ann, et al. Biology 2e, OpenStax Biology 2nd Edition, 5 Mar. 2018, https://opentextbc.ca/biology2eopenstax/chapter/formation-of-new-species/.
Gittleman, John L. “Species.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 6 Nov. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/science/species-taxon.
“Liger at Jungle Island at Miami, Florida, USA: Liger Zoos.” Liger Zoos from around the World., https://www.ligerzoos.com/liger-zoo-jungle-island-miami-florida.
“Liger Facts.” Big Cat Rescue, 8 Feb. 2019, https://bigcatrescue.org/liger-facts/.
Milman, Oliver. “Pizzly or Grolar Bear: Grizzly-Polar Hybrid Is a New Result of Climate Change.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 18 May 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/18/pizzly-grolar-bear-grizzly-polar-hybrid-climate-change.
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Edited by: Niti Jani, Director of Research Bloggers
