Egregoros

@ergo @cjd @tio @trom

Wolves and coyotes are different species who can mate to produce fertile offspring.

The wolf is twice the size of a coyote and hunts big game in packs. The coyote solo hunts small game like gophers and rabbits.

If they mate to produce a coywolf, that coywolf will have neither of the specialized skills needed for hunting game in a niche. It will starve in the wild. This is why they do not mate in nature, similar to lions and tigers.

Only in domesticated situations such as zoos, farms, and cities do different species interbreed. On the farm, bulls will mate with mares, roosters with ducks, and goats with sheep. In natural conditions, Europids with high intelligence, creativity, and strategic thinking would not breed with Negrids possessed with skills for running fast and surviving the intense sun. They need to be forced together into the same place like a school and city and coaxed to do so.

@ergo @Bernard @cjd @tio @trom you should look into something called ring species, there's a bunch of examples of salamanders that can breed with neighboring salamanders but can't breed with the salamanders that are 2 sections over. there's also plenty of examples of fertile hybrids like coywolves.

essentially, the idea of species is a social construct with almost no bearing for the ambiguity and messiness of genetic reality. it's great for explaining to children that horses are different from cats but anyone who's interested in this stuff should ignore it. the fact that there are multiple extinct hominids that interbred with humans also disproves the "one species the human species" nonsense.

if you want to apply the genetic distance standards to humans that we apply to animals, humans should AT MINIMUM be broken up into 3 distinct subspecies going by the fst distance between africans and australian aboriginals.