Mating of a turtle and a tortoise?

Status
Not open for further replies.

omijh

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2012
Messages
11
My friend has a red eared slider turtle that has started "fanning" and i have a female Indian star tortoise,My friend says we can breed them to hatch hybrids
Is it even possible? :p
 

StudentoftheReptile

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2011
Messages
1,705
Location (City and/or State)
Alabama
If a female dog is in heat, can you throw a tomcat on it and make cat-dog hybrids? Nope.

Like Jacqui said, this hybrid is not possible.
 

yagyujubei

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
2,407
Location (City and/or State)
Amish Country
What about a Humanzee? Human x Chimpanzee? I would be amazed, if this hasn't been attempted. Probably be best to keep it to yourself, though.
 

mctlong

Moderator
5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2009
Messages
2,653
Location (City and/or State)
SF Valley, SoCal
I've never heard of such a thing. If it were possible, chances are, we'd have already seen it.
 

fbsmith3

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Messages
535
Location (City and/or State)
Worcester, MA
Genetics is a funny thing, human with chimpanzee is possible, but I would not want to meet one.

Even when hybrids are possible, they can create huge problems that are not worth the "coolness".
 

GeoTerraTestudo

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 7, 2011
Messages
3,311
Location (City and/or State)
Broomfield, Colorado
omijh said:
My friend has a red eared slider turtle that has started "fanning" and i have a female Indian star tortoise,My friend says we can breed them to hatch hybrids
Is it even possible? :p

Nope. Two tortoise species in the same genus can hybridize (like Hermann and Russian tortoises, or redfoot and yellowfoot tortoises), and even two tortoises from different genera can hybridize (like sulcata and leopard tortoises). But I really, really, really, really doubt if tortoises could hybridize with turtles from other families.

Like Student said, you can hybridize some species of feline with certain others, and some species of canine with certain others. However, even within each family, some genetic differences are too great, and certainly between the two families, hybridization is impossible.

But more importantly, why in the heck would you want to?! Such Frankensteinian experiments serve no purpose. :(

yagyujubei said:
What about a Humanzee? Human x Chimpanzee? I would be amazed, if this hasn't been attempted. Probably be best to keep it to yourself, though.

Our closest relatives are indeed chimpanzees and bonobos. Each of these species has well over 90% of their DNA identical to ours. With such genetic similarity, you would think that hybridization would be possible. However, even if fertilization takes place, there could still be problems with the viability of the offspring, either in utero or beyond.

In the early 1900s, the Russian scientist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov did try to create human-chimp hybrids via artificial insemination in a series of efforts known as the "Ivanov Experiments", but the experiments failed, and no hybrids were born.

And it's a good thing, too. Artificially hybridizing animals is morally dubious as it is, but hybridizing humans with other apes would be extremely unethical.
 

GBtortoises

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Feb 27, 2009
Messages
3,618
Location (City and/or State)
The Catskill Mountains of New York State
StudentoftheReptile said:
If a female dog is in heat, can you throw a tomcat on it and make cat-dog hybrids? Nope.

Like Jacqui said, this hybrid is not possible.

Obviously you've never watched th cartoon "Catdog". :p



GBtortoises said:
StudentoftheReptile said:
If a female dog is in heat, can you throw a tomcat on it and make cat-dog hybrids? Nope.

Like Jacqui said, this hybrid is not possible.

Obviously you've never watched th cartoon "Catdog". :p

I work with a guy who is around 6'4" and covered with hair from head to toe, he is obviously a human/bigfoot hybrid! His nickname is "Sasquatch".
 

GeoTerraTestudo

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 7, 2011
Messages
3,311
Location (City and/or State)
Broomfield, Colorado
Even if it were genetically possible (which I seriously doubt), the courtship behaviors of tortoises and pond turtles are very different. Plus, even if you put them together and they don't try to mate (which they won't), they could still spread diseases to each other. Don't try it.
 

TortoiseBoy1999

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Messages
2,369
Location (City and/or State)
Palmdale CA
GeoTerraTestudo said:
Even if it were genetically possible (which I seriously doubt), the courtship behaviors of tortoises and pond turtles are very different. Plus, even if you put them together and they don't try to mate (which they won't), they could still spread diseases to each other. Don't try it.

True dat!
 

ascott

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Messages
16,138
Location (City and/or State)
Apple Valley, California
Eeewwwww.....I knew a really hairy guy once...his wife would not allow him to stand about in the kitchen when she was making meals because if he stood in one spot a moment then there would be hair where he was standing...he would shave in the am and by the afternoon he would have a beard again...for real, it was weird and cool at the same time....
 

TortoiseBoy1999

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2012
Messages
2,369
Location (City and/or State)
Palmdale CA
ascott said:
Eeewwwww.....I knew a really hairy guy once...his wife would not allow him to stand about in the kitchen when she was making meals because if he stood in one spot a moment then there would be hair where he was standing...he would shave in the am and by the afternoon he would have a beard again...for real, it was weird and cool at the same time....

Hmmmm /:)
 

dmmj

The member formerly known as captain awesome
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
19,698
Location (City and/or State)
CA
Not possible
My quest for a mankey still remains out of reach :(
 

Jacqui

Wanna be raiser of Lemon Drop tortoises
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
39,941
Location (City and/or State)
A Land Far Away...
GeoTerraTestudo said:
And it's a good thing, too. Artificially hybridizing animals is morally dubious as it is, but hybridizing humans with other apes would be extremely unethical.

Why unethical with human/apes, but only morally dubious with the rest?
 

wellington

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Tortoise Club
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
49,659
Location (City and/or State)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
I think it's pretty sad that your friend would even want to do something like that. Can't people stop with hybrids, or like the idiot dog people like to call it, designer dogs/breeds. They are mutts! Nothing bad with mutts, until you start breeding them on purpose.
 

Mgridgaway

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
842
Location (City and/or State)
Maryland
wellington said:
I think it's pretty sad that your friend would even want to do something like that. Can't people stop with hybrids, or like the idiot dog people like to call it, designer dogs/breeds. They are mutts! Nothing bad with mutts, until you start breeding them on purpose.

So you're saying I should probably shutter my "Russmanns" and "Redcata" breeding programs? :p
 

GeoTerraTestudo

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 7, 2011
Messages
3,311
Location (City and/or State)
Broomfield, Colorado
Jacqui said:
Why unethical with human/apes, but only morally dubious with the rest?

What I mean by that is, some people would justify breeding certain hybrid animals for the good they serve. For example, mules have been around for centuries, and are useful as drought animals because of their health, strength, and tractability. More recently, Sulimov dogs (bred in Russia by hybridizing domestic dogs with golden jackals) have been used to sniff out explosives in airports. Personally, I would not breed any interspecific hybrid, but at least those hybrids were created with a specific job in mind.

Also, sometimes other species hybridize of their own accord. Hybrids between coyotes and wolves are rare, but they do happen. Ditto for hybrids between mule deer and whitetail deer, redfoot and yellowfoot tortoises, etc. I am opposed to forcing hybridization in captivity, but one has to admit that sometimes it just happens, even in the wild.

As for us, genetic research indicates that early on, our ancestors and the ancestors of chimps used to hybridize long ago before our lineages were fully separate. But that hasn't happened for millions of years. Now, despite being closely related to chimps, we are very different from them. We are not the only sentient species on the planet, but we are the most intelligent, and moreover we have moral agency. A hybrid between a human and a chimp or bonobo would almost certainly be a miserable creature, and we should know better than to create such a being.
 

fbsmith3

Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Messages
535
Location (City and/or State)
Worcester, MA
First a tortoise and turtle hybrid is impossible. Second they say human.chimpanzee hybrid was unsuccessful. In all honesty would you want a human with minimul mental capacity and the strength.of 5 men running around. Forget ethics, this person would be dangerous.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top