Info 202 Fall 2011

by Paul Goodman

Photo from doodlepuppy.com.

Ever seen a Goldendoodle? How about a Labradoodle? The first is a mix of a Golden Retriever and a Poodle; the second is mix between a Labrador and Poodle. They’re both cute as hell. But they can be hard to describe – the natural properties that we might rely on to describe their parents simply aren’t useful when describing these animals.

This isn't just an issue for the American Kennel Club (which doesn't recognize either breed, for what it's worth). The New York Times ran a story on Tuesday describing hybridization in the animal kingdom. An excerpt:

In 2006, a hunter in the Canadian Arctic shot a bear that had white fur like a polar bear’s but had brown patches, long claws and a hump like a grizzly bear’s. DNA analysis confirmed the animal was a hybrid of the two species.

It seems like a strange phenomenon, but the article cites research suggesting that up to 10 percent of animal species occasionally breed with other species. So what do you call their offspring? The article has a few of the most common examples and their names, which strike me as somewhat logical. But would you have named them the same way? Who decides?

While several examples of human-bred animal hybrids are well known and can thrive in captivity including zorses (zebra-horse), beefalo (bison-beef cattle) and, of course, mules (donkey-horse), naturally occurring animal hybrids have many factors working against their longer-term success.

In the case of the Goldendoodle, Goldendoodles.com tells us that the name "Goldendoodle" came from an American family in the early 1990's. Not exactly scientific. But for dog owners, it might not have to be. The Goldendoodle FAQ also tells us that Goldendoodles are also called Golden Poos, Goldie Poos, or Groodles. And a little searching on Wikipedia confirms that the zebra-horse hybrid also has multiple names:

This cross is also called a zebrula, zebrule, zebra mule or golden zebra. The rarer reverse pairing is sometimes called a horbra, hebra, zebrinny or zebret.

So which one is it? When anomalies occur in nature that defy our traditional definition, it quickly becomes very challenging to describe them by name or natural property.

Click here to read the full article in the NYTimes.

More importantly, e-mail me if you have a Goldendoodle. I'd like to hang out.