Can cows and buffaloes mate to give birth to calves? What will it be like?

To be precise, it should be possible to cross cattle and buffaloes, that is to say, it is possible for an estrus cow to mate with a male buffalo or an estrus buffalo to mate with a bull, but it is true that hybrids cannot be produced after hybridization. Although some people have done experiments, so far no one has succeeded.

Although cows and buffaloes are both cows, they belong to different genera. Buffalo in China are generally Asian buffaloes, belonging to the genus Buffalo, and cattle belong to cattle species, which are completely different animal attributes.

Buffalo can be divided into Asian buffalo and European buffalo. Even if these two buffaloes are crossed, they cannot get pregnant because of their different chromosomes and reproductive isolation. Asian buffalo has 48 chromosomes, European buffalo has 50 chromosomes, and yellow cattle has 60 chromosomes, which are far from each other.

According to the law of reproductive isolation in biology, that is, for various reasons, groups with close kinship do not mate under natural conditions, or even if they can mate, they cannot produce offspring or fertile offspring, so we can know that buffalo and yellow cattle are related, but they still cannot cross to obtain offspring.

Extended data

Buffalo and yellow cattle belong to the subfamily Bovine, and yellow cattle belong to the genus Bovine, followed by yellow cattle and yak. There are four kinds of buffalo, namely wild buffalo, Mindoro buffalo, mountain buffalo and lowland buffalo. As a human labor force, it is the first buffalo with thick skin and underdeveloped sweat glands. Usually it prefers to soak in the pond, which is also to cool itself down.

In recent years, according to cattle with similar chromosomes, there have been many successful cases of cross breeding, but neither cattle nor buffalo have completed the breakthrough. The law of animal reproduction is influenced by factors such as class, order, family, genus and species.

There are two ways to complete hybridization and reproduce offspring. One is that different animals can breed in one of "classes, orders, families, genera and species" without reproductive isolation. The second is that they belong to the same genus, but different species may also have the possibility of reproduction. If they belong to different genera, reproductive isolation will occur.

It can cross between several kinds of cattle and produce offspring. For example, yellow cattle can cross with yak and tumor cattle, all of which have 60 chromosomes. But at present, there is no way for cows and buffaloes to cross, and there will be no offspring. Buffalo has 48 chromosomes, which is very different from cattle. After all, it is difficult for interspecific animals to cross and produce offspring.