When different animals are kept together it always can happen that the wrong male mates with the wrong female with as a result hybrids.
In earlier days hybrids were bred to show if surtain species were related and also privat-breeders breed hybrids as a sport ( birds, reptiles and fishes ).
Now-a-days breeding hybrids has something negatives but evenso it can happen.
At the Olmense Zoo in Belgium a pair of Blue-fronted Amazon parrots is kept with a mixture of other parrots and parakeets and during the 2012 breeding period the female laid 3 eggs. She incubated well but because it was an outside-aviary the eggs were taen away shortly before hatching and placed in the nest of a pair of Yellow-fronted Amazon parrots which were kept in the Tropical House. From this clutch 1 Yellow-fronted and one of the foster-eggs hatched and were both raised succesfully. After the young became feathered something strange was noticed. The foster-chick had clearly red feathers on it's head, something completly unknown in Blue-fronted Amazons !
In the outdoor-aviary a male Red-masked conure had been seen several times in close contact with the female Blue-fronted but nobody thought there was more between these two birds.
Now with the young bird as proof it became clear that the lue-fronted Amazon had mated with the Red-masked conure, a mating I had never heared off before.
Would be intrested to hear about other strange - unplanned - hybrids !
In earlier days hybrids were bred to show if surtain species were related and also privat-breeders breed hybrids as a sport ( birds, reptiles and fishes ).
Now-a-days breeding hybrids has something negatives but evenso it can happen.
At the Olmense Zoo in Belgium a pair of Blue-fronted Amazon parrots is kept with a mixture of other parrots and parakeets and during the 2012 breeding period the female laid 3 eggs. She incubated well but because it was an outside-aviary the eggs were taen away shortly before hatching and placed in the nest of a pair of Yellow-fronted Amazon parrots which were kept in the Tropical House. From this clutch 1 Yellow-fronted and one of the foster-eggs hatched and were both raised succesfully. After the young became feathered something strange was noticed. The foster-chick had clearly red feathers on it's head, something completly unknown in Blue-fronted Amazons !
In the outdoor-aviary a male Red-masked conure had been seen several times in close contact with the female Blue-fronted but nobody thought there was more between these two birds.
Now with the young bird as proof it became clear that the lue-fronted Amazon had mated with the Red-masked conure, a mating I had never heared off before.
Would be intrested to hear about other strange - unplanned - hybrids !