The punchline for this strip was going to be having a mule as a "hybrid." However, as I planned out the dialogue, I came up with a horrible pun, and a pun of such magnitude simply must be the last word. So, we ended up with two punchlines (or a punchline and a groan-line).
The most common definition of a species is a group of animals that can actually or potentially interbreed to produce viable offspring. In some cases, closely related species (usually the same genus) can produce offspring (called hybrids) but such animals are not considered viable. Hybrids are not "viable" in biological terms because they are either sterile or less fit than their parents to the degree that they can't produce offspring themselves.
The existence of hybrids gives biologists pause sometimes and causes disagreements in the classification of certain animals. For example, wolves and domestic dogs have some very distinctive differences in terms of behavior and physiology, but if they interbreed, the offspring are viable and fertile. So some want to call them sub-species and others want to call them separate species. If they are subspecies, then a "wolfdog" is not a hybrid by definition. This, in turn can muddy laws regarding the keeping of exotic (wild) animals and hybrids.
Most hybrids result from artificial captive situations – like housing tigers with lions or zebras with donkeys. These are animals that would never interact in the wild due to different habits, habitats, or geographic locations.
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