Canid hybrid

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Canid hybrids are the result of interbreeding between different species of the canine (dog) family (Canidae).

Genetic considerations

Many members of the dog family can interbreed to produce fertile offspring.

Molecular analysis indicates 4 divisions of canids:

1. Wolf-like canids including the domestic dog, gray wolves, coyotes, and jackals
2. The South American canids
3. Old and New World red-foxlike canids, for example, red foxes and kit foxes
4. Monotypic species, for example, bat-eared fox and raccoon dog

The wolf (including the dingo and domestic dog), coyote, and jackal, all have 78 chromosomes arranged in 39 pairs. This allows them to hybridise freely (barring size or behavioural constraints) and produce fertile offspring. The wolf, coyote, and golden jackal diverged around 3 to 4 million years ago. Other members of the dog family diverged 7 to 10 million years ago and are less closely related and cannot hybridise with the wolf-like canids: the yellow Jackal has 74 chromosomes, the red fox has 38 chromosomes, the raccoon dog has 42 chromosomes, and the Fennec fox has 64 chromosomes. Although the African Wild Dog has 78 chromosomes, it is considered distinct enough to be placed in its own genus.

Legal implications of hybrids

Dog hybrids kept as pets are prohibited in certain jurisdictions, or are classed as wild animals and must be housed in the same way as purebred wolves. For example, hybrids of the domestic dog with the wolf, coyote, dingo, jackal, fox, dhole, African Wild Dog, or Raccoon dog are prohibited in the State of Hawaii.^{[citation needed]}

Wolf-dog hybrid

The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated form of the Grey Wolf (Canis lupus lupus), and therefore belongs to the same species as other wolves such as the Dingo (Canis lupus dingo). Therefore crosses between these sub-species are unremarkable, and not a hybridization in the same sense as an interbreeding between different species of Canidae.

People wanting to improve domestic dogs or create an exotic pet may breed domestic dogs to wolves. Grey wolves have been crossed with dogs that have a wolf-like appearance, such as Siberian Huskies, and Alaskan Malamutes. The breeding of wolf-dog crosses is controversial, with opponents purporting that it produces an animal unfit as a domestic pet. There are a number of established wolfdog breeds in development. The first generation crosses (one wolf parent, one dog parent) are generally back crossed to domestic dogs to maintain a domestic temperament and consistent conformation. First generation wolf-dog crosses are popular in the USA, but retain many wolf-like traits.

Dingo hybrids

A "dingo" with an unusual colour pattern

The Australian Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) breeds freely with other domestic dogs. This is now so widespread that in some areas dingoes are now mostly mixed-breed dogs, crossed in recent times with dogs from other parts of the world. However, DNA study shows that "the dingo originates from domesticated dogs, originally from East Asia"^[1] (who reverted back to the wild) and so interbreeding between dingos and other domestic dogs is also not a hybridization in the same sense as an interbreeding between different species of Canidae.

Some dingo-mixed-breeds have been deliberately bred as pets, but are turned loose due to behavioural problems. These crossbreds are accepted back into the wild dingo population where they breed with pure dingoes. In some parts of Australia, up to 80% of dingoes are part domestic dog. Dingoes are distinguishable from domestic dogs through DNA and through having longer teeth and longer muzzles.

The Australian Kelpie sheepdog is widely believed to be the result of crossing dingos with English herding dogs, but this (the dingo blood) is not upheld by breed documentation. The Australian Cattle Dog breed is known to have been influenced by the dingo.

According to the partwork "Animal Life and the World of Nature" (Vol 1, 1902-1903), Lord Walter Rothschild owned a dingo-wolf cross, bred by Mr and Mrs HC Brooke from a tame male dingo and a semi-tame female wolf.

Dog-fox hybrids

There are no reliable reports or genetic testing that proves the existence of dog-fox hybrids (called dox) although there are many unsubstantiated reports of such hybrids.

An unconfirmed female terrier/fox hybrid was reported, and later euthanized (killed), in the UK. British gamekeeper folklore claims that terrier bitches can produce offspring with male foxes. Other dog breeds claimed to have hybridized with foxes are the Alaskan Malamute, Sheltie, Siberian husky, and most of the hound groups. The supposed hybrids (known as a dox) are likely to be natural variation in the domestic dog.

There has been a reported cross between a domestic dog and a South American Maned Wolf, but the Maned Wolf is only a fox like canid not closely related to other canids and is the only member of the genus Chrysocyon.

In Saskatchewan, Canada there was another supposed dox, this time a female miniature Sheltie with a wild fox. There was a litter of three, but only one survived. The surviving (a female) was barren, and looked like an almost pure fox, with slight variations. However, the variability of dogs in appearance makes it impossible to determine whether an animal is hybrid based on looks. In most reported cases the dox had gold or yellow eyes, wired hair, and with black red and gray hairs covering most of the body.

Coyote hybrids

Coyote-Domestic dog hybrid

There is no genetic difference between a male coyote/female dog breeding and a male dog/female coyote breeding, but two separate terms have been invented, coydog and dogote, for unknown reasons. A major difference between the two is logically the birthplace of the offspring: a female coyote would give birth in the wild and a female dog, unless feral itself, would give birth domestically.

Coydog

Coydogs (male coyote/female dog) Coydogs were once believed to be present in large numbers in Pennsylvania due to a declining coyote population and a burgeoning domestic dog population. Most supposed hybrids were naturally occurring red or blond color variations of the Coyote or were feral dogs. The breeding cycles of dogs and coyotes are not synchronized and this makes interbreeding uncommon. If interbreeding had been common, each successive generation of the coyote population would have acquired more and more doglike traits.

Coyotes are solitary by nature; this trait is carried across to coyote-dog hybrids. This can result in problematical and unsociable behaviour which makes them generally unsuitable as pets. As a result, they may be abandoned or allowed to stray and be absorbed into the feral dog or coyote population. However if the coyote (or dogote) is found at a very young age and raised properly they can, in fact, become a pet much like some wolf-dogs are kept. Much time and effort must be put into them for this to occur.

Dogote

The mating of a male dog and a female coyote results in a dogote. There has been one report of a dogote which arose from a male German shepherd/female coyote mating in the wild. Hybrid pups were found after a female coyote was shot. The adult dogotes resembled German shepherds in color. The dogote displays unsociable behavior much like the coydog but through much time and effort can, like the coydog, become a pet.

Coyote-Dingo hybrid

Coyotes have also been crossed with Australian dingoes in zoological gardens^{[citation needed]}.

Coyote-wolf hybrid

The red wolf is considered by some to be a coyote/wolf hybrid

Coywolves (Coyote/Wolf) have occurred in captivity and in the wild where the choice of same-species mates has been limited. Coyote/Red Wolf hybrids have been found. Some consider that the American Red Wolf is not a true species because of DNA analysis that supports the hypothesis that the Red Wolf is a Gray Wolf/Coyote hybrid^[2]. This is sometimes used as an argument against the conservation of the Red Wolf.

Jackal hybrids

The Wolf and Jackal can interbreed and produce fertile hybrid offspring, which are sometimes known as huskals. Coyote/Jackal Hybrids have also been bred as pets by Wolf-dog enthusiasts. Dogs have been crossed with golden jackals. It is also thought that Pharoanic Egyptians crossbred domestic dogs with jackals, producing a jackal­-dog that resembled the god Anubis.

A Sulimov dog at work

The reason golden jackals differ in chromosome number is most likely because golden jackals have 2 pairs of chromosomes that are twice as long but contain similar gene content as 4 pairs of dog chromosomes. This might reduce fertility but it would not likely completely sterilize golden jackal-dog hybrids.^{[citation needed]}

In The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication Charles Darwin wrote:

Several years ago I saw confined in the Zoological Gardens of London a female hybrid from an English dog and jackal, which even in this the first generation was so sterile that, as I was assured by her keeper, she did not fully exhibit her proper periods; but this case, from numerous instances have occurred of fertile hybrids from these two animals, was certainly exceptional.^[3]

In Russia, Golden Jackal/Siberian husky hybrids were bred as sniffer dogs because Jackals have a superior sense of smell and Lapponian Herders are good cold climate dogs. Also Fox Terrier, Lunehund, and Spitz blood were bred for over generations and for almost 25 years have been dedicated to the forming and precise genes of the Sulimov dogs. As well as a superior sense of smell, important at low temperatures where substances are less volatile and therefore less pungent, Sulimov Dogs are small sized and can work in confined spaces. When tired, their normally curled tails droop, making it clear to the handler that the dog needs to be rested.

The jackal hybrids were bred by senior researcher Klim Sulimov, Senior Research Assistant at the D.S. Likhachev Scientific Research Institute for Cultural Heritage and Environmental Protection in Russia.

Male jackal pups had to be fostered on a husky bitch in order to imprint the jackals on dogs. Female jackals accepted male huskies more easily. The half-bred jackal-dogs were hard to train and were bred back to huskies to produce quarter-bred hybrids (quadroons). These hybrids were small, agile, trainable and had excellent noses. They are called Sulimov dogs after their creator and may one day be registered as a working breed of dog. Twenty-five jackal-dog hybrids are used by Aeroflot at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, for functions which include bomb-sniffing. Their breeding program dates back to 1975, but was not applied to bomb detection until 2002.

Canid interfertility chart

Others: Red Wolf, Eastern Canadian Wolf, Maned Wolf, Lycaon, Bush Dog, Pariah dog, Lycalopex

References

External links

• Wolf Dog resources
• Wolf dogs
• Hybrid Dingoes
• BBC News: Sulimov Dogs
• Moscow News: Sulimov Dogs
• Dogotes and Coydogs
• Coydogs
• WolfSource