Bovid hybrid

A bovid hybrid is a hybrid of two different members of the bovid family.

The American bison and European bison (wisent) have been hybridized with Domestic Cattle. With wisent, this was originally done in an attempt to reinvigorate the declining wisent population. First generation hybrid males are sterile, but females may be crossed back to either a wisent or domestic bull to produce fertile males. Modern wisent herds keep hybrids well isolated from pure wisent. However, since the modern purebred wisent are descended from less than 2 dozen individuals, this has resulted in a significant genetic bottleneck for the purebred wisent.

European bison (Wisent) have also been crossed with domestic cattle to produce the żubroń. These were first bred in Poland in 1847 as hardy, disease resistant alternatives to domestic cattle. Breeding was discontinued in the 1980s. The few remaining zubron can be found at Bialowieski National Park.

American bison bulls (American "buffalo") have been crossed with domestic cattle to produce beefalo and cattalo. These are variable in type and colour, depending on the breed of cattle used e.g. Herefords and Charolais (beef cattle), Holsteins (dairy) or Brahman (humped cattle). Generally, they are horned with heavy set forequarters, sloping backs and lighter hindquarters. Beefalo have been back-crossed to bison and to domestic cattle; some of these resemble pied bison with smooth coats and a maned hump. The aim is to produce high protein, low fat and low cholesterol beef on animals which have "less hump and more rump". Although bison bull/domestic cow crossings are more usual, domestic bull/bison cow crossings have a lower infant mortality rate (cow immune systems can reject hybrid calves). Modern beefalo include fertile bulls, making the beefalo a variety of "improved cattle" with a dash of bison. There were suggestions of crossing the beefalo to Cape buffalo, although this idea essentially ended when the Cape buffalo was found to have 52 chromosomes (instead of 60 as in cattle and bison), meaning that the hybrid's success would be unlikely. Bull and cow cattalos are reported in Wonders of Animal Life edited by J A Hammerton (1930).

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