Why can different species of animals breed together?
In order for two different species to be able to interbreed, they must be closely related. Generally, animals within the same genus can interbreed – for example, that most famous of hybrids, the mule, is a cross between a male donkey and female horse, both of which belong to the genus Equus. Depending on how closely related they are, species in different genera but the same family can sometimes interbreed too – for example, the puma and the leopard both belong to the family Felidae, but the genera Puma and Panthera respectively, and can interbreed to produce a hybrid known as a pumapard. Hybrids are much more common in captivity than in the wild, as we can house together or artificially inseminate animals that would not naturally encounter one another, but hybrids do sometimes occur in the wild – for example, wolf-coyote hybrids in North America. Being closely related basically means that two species share a greater amount of genetic material with each other than with other animals. Be
