Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello Hybrid Collectors,

I have been into herps for a long time , but I have never owned a hybrid. I have a question that should seem elementary to you all, but confuses me. I realize that you can get two different species to breed and even have offspring, but shouldn't they be infertile by the very definition of the word species? Are all snakes just sub-species of each other?

I think your definition of species is wrong.

Sometimes two different species can not breed at all.
Sometimes (as in Buffalo and Domestic Cattle) only one sex is usually fertile, (I believe in buffalo/cattle - bull hybrids from first gen crossing are very rarely fertile), etc.

However, two specimens being able to produce fertile offspring does not mean they are the same species.

If it did, then gopher snakes, rat snakes, kingsnakes, would all be the same species - as you can hybrid them all with each other and get fertile offspring. Clearly they are not the same species.

I don't think there is an absolute definition for species anywhere that isn't necessarily broken somewhere in nature.

Species is just used as a mechanism for us (humans) to classify what we find out there.
-----
3.0 WC; 0.2 CB L. getula californiae
0.1 WC; 10 eggs (7/11) Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

"I have been into herps for a long time , but I have never owned a hybrid. I have a question that should seem elementary to you all, but confuses me. I realize that you can get two different species to breed and even have offspring, but shouldn't they be infertile by the very definition of the word species? Are all snakes just sub-species of each other?"

Well unfortunately the words species and even genera are all just man made classifications to separate what seems similar and what does not by definition they should not be fertile however we know this is not holding water. What It all really comes down to is evolution lineage and how genetically close the two animal are. Hybrids snakes however have seem to just about broken off the out dated scheme of classification though as there are high rates of fertility in intergeneric hybrids as well as interspecific hybrids as well.
-----
Adam
Hybrid Breeders Association

you can still get fertile hybrids if and only if the two species only recently (last couple million years) became separate species because they will generally still has similair body size, structure, and sometimes habits... That is why a lot of hybrids that can be bred are mules (meaning they are infertile)