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Could Cabbits Really Exist?

There's no particular reason that I know of (but I'm not a genetics expert) to stop DNA of different species from being combined.
I think the eggs of various creatures have a defensive mechanism that recognises DNA matches and mismatches, and does something to prevent a DNA mismatch from splicing any DNA sequences (a bit like the actions of various antibodies in the immune system). If this defensive mechanism was faulty or switched off, there is the possibility of foreign DNA finding its way in. Probability, however, is another thing - how often do dissimilar species mate? I suspect it's not very often, so this is why it's just a freak occurrence.
If scientists wanted to do this, they could do it in a test tube. Now and then they would get a 'success'.
 
Wikipedia dismisses cabbits as misidentified and/or partly deformed/disabled Manx cats.
Given that rabbits cannot (AFAIK) even interbreed with hares, which are genetically closer to rabbits, it would seem extremely unlikely that they could with cats. This article and the linked chicken/duck one, did make me pause to consider the possibility though.

There have been some documented cases of strange hybrids in the wild - wholpins and camas spring to mind, so I wonder if anyone knows about the most extreme examples of hybrid creatures from genetically different parents? Are there any absolute limits on the % of genetic difference between the parents?
 
Well I followed the "Cabbit Playing" video to Youtube, and the person who'd originally posted it (Miataman2001) explained in answer to a comment:
It is a cat, but it was born with dysplasia I believe. It had just a little tuft of fur for a tail, so we joked that is was a cat/rabbit. Hence the name, Cabbit. One of the best cats ever.

Naturally all the other commentators have completely ignored that explanation, and continued to protest that it isn't a real Cabbit!

On the other hand the Mexican Cabbit in the other three videos does seem a rather rum critter.

But what would be the point of creating a cat/rabbit hybrid? Aren't rabbits just really boring and rather stupid? Why would you want to breed a more boring cat? Why?
 
Interspecific hybrids like tigons and ligers are quite rare. Intergeneric hybrids are pretty rare. Interfamiliar hybrids are not unknown. No interordinal animal hybrids, such as between the order Carnivora (which includes cats) and the order Lagomorpha (which includes rabbits), are known to science. The two animals are separated by a genetic chasm. It would be like us (from the order Primates) mating successfully with sheep (from the order Artiodactyla). And if that were possible, there would be sheep people everywhere by now.
 
"what would be the point of creating a cat/rabbit hybrid"

An impossibly cute pet?

cabbit.jpg
 
"what would be the point of creating a cat/rabbit hybrid"

An impossibly cute pet?

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I've always loved cats. I suppose I sort of feel an affinity with them. Rabbits, on the other hand, I've always found sinister and unattractive. I remember helping an ex clip her rabbits nails, holding it and having those powerful back legs scraping my arms as it tried to escape, and I've wondered why such a dull but painful pet would be popular. Combining the sheer pointlessness of a rabbit with the weaponry and cunning of a cat seems a flawed endeavour.
 
It would require some pretty sophisticated genetic engineering.

But why settle for "cat + rabbit"?

mDEzHm.jpg


:eek:
 
Isn't there a whole pheromonel side to cats mating? Surely that would lessen even further the chance of a cat and rabbit mating.
 
I dread to think of the day when genetics enable us to crossbreed all sorts of creatures. I can envisage some people wanting to be part animal, too. We'll rue the day we cross a fox with a duck or whatever.
 
I dread to think of the day when genetics enable us to crossbreed all sorts of creatures. I can envisage some people wanting to be part animal, too. We'll rue the day we cross a fox with a duck or whatever.
I suspect the most we'll ever achieve is engineering one animal to produce certain proteins associated with another, such as the goats which make spider silk. Engineering into one species the complex mixture of physical capabilities and instinctive behaviours evolutionary providence has imparted to another is probably beyond our future ken, and most likely will serve little purpose. We've been engineering species through selective breeding for millennia, of course.
 
I think you're forgetting there are people who would like a crossbred creature, or to actually be a crossbred creature, because they think they look nice. It would probably be a cosmetic procedure, mind you.
 
On the other hand the Mexican Cabbit in the other three videos does seem a rather rum critter.

But what would be the point of creating a cat/rabbit hybrid? Aren't rabbits just really boring and rather stupid? Why would you want to breed a more boring cat? Why?

Good question. But doesn't the video just show a cat with a dodgy hip, possibly due to some genetic anomaly?

I'm not sure I like the idea of crossing cats and rabbits - my instinctive feeling is (and the video, if genuine, would bear this out) that far from creating a fascinating hybrid with unique abilities, one would just end up with a poor enfeebled thing that's neither fish nor fowl (er, as it were) such as a mute cat that can't run.

It's hard to see any evolutionary advantage.
 
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The cats in the videos and pics are suffering from deformities caused by being homozygous to the gene that causes Manx tailessness. The gene is dominant and Manx are usually outcrossed to British Shorthairs to reduce the chance of problems. These include shortened spines; deformed pelvises causing the stiff, hopping gait; incontinence and extreme cases spina bifida.

I have seen pics of pheasant/chicken hybrids and a guinea fowl/chicken hybrid. Birds seem to be able to hybridise more easily than mammals.

I've heard anecdotal evidence of a brown rat/black rat hybrid litter that didn't survive.
 
lovely" and the fun facts are terrific :)
 
About 30 years back a mate had what he called a Rabcat, cats head acted
like a cat but hopped with rabbit like back legs, he got it off a farm somewhere and I
saw it many times but I thought at the time it was a cat with some form of deformity
though it was happy enough hopping like a rabbit round the place.
 
About 30 years back a mate had what he called a Rabcat, cats head acted
like a cat but hopped with rabbit like back legs, he got it off a farm somewhere and I
saw it many times but I thought at the time it was a cat with some form of deformity
though it was happy enough hopping like a rabbit round the place.
It won't have been a cat/rabbit hybrid. But it would be interesting to have seen some pictures of it to determine what it was. Karl Shuker's book Cats of Magic, Mythology and Mystery contains a discussion on cabbits on page 238. His suspicion is that supposed cabbits are generally manx cats, and claims that manx cats have lapine ancestry are ridiculous.
 
No pics I am afraid long before digi cams people weren't as snap happy in those days.
 
I dread to think of the day when genetics enable us to crossbreed all sorts of creatures. I can envisage some people wanting to be part animal, too. We'll rue the day we cross a fox with a duck or whatever.

Yeah. What would you call it? :D
Maybe a dox or a,,,,,,,,,,,,oh hell, on second thought, never mind.
 
Given that Myxomatosis has now jumped species and is potentially threatening the existence of the Brown Hare population in the U.K., could a Cabbit result in the extinction of cats?
 
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