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Asked by claralores14 to Carrie, Cedric, Ellen, Ines, Rupert on 13 Mar 2017.
Question: Why can't an elephant reproduce with a dog?
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Carrie Ijichi answered on 13 Mar 2017:
most species can’t interbreed because their reproductive systems aren’t compatible and their genetics are too different. Some can, like horses and donkeys and mate but their offspring are sterile which means they can’t go on to have any babies of their own.
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Ellen Williams answered on 13 Mar 2017:
The definition of a species is that they can reproduce and produce viable offspring. So unique species (such as elephants and dogs) cannot mate with each other because of the reasons Carrie has listed below.
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Ines Goncalves answered on 13 Mar 2017:
At the most basic level it’s because the reproductive organs of the two species don’t fit together, which means they cannot mate to begin with. Even if they could, they would not produce viable offspring because they are not genetically similar enough. It is the biological definition of species, individuals of two different species cannot reproduce together. Otherwise they would be the same species would they? we would all be just one species, one long continuum of different shapes.
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Rupert Marshall answered on 13 Mar 2017:
They don’t want to. Elephants don’t fancy dogs. Their organs don’t fit together so they can’t get the sperm near the eggs. And even if they did, the egg would not accept sperm from such a different species.
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Cedric Tan answered on 14 Mar 2017:
The reproductive organs of the elephant and that of dog are not compatible and hence, mating would be rather difficult. Imagine fitting the male elephant’s reproductive organ into a female dog’s reproductive opening.
Further, the sperm of the elephant wouldn’t be able to bind and fertilise that egg of the dog and vice versa, so no offspring would come out of this mating.
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