interbreed
/ɪntəˈbriːd
/verb (past and past participle interbred /ɪntəˈbrɛd/)
1(With reference to an animal) breed or cause to breed with another of a different race or species: [no object]: wolves and dogs can interbreed...
- As a result, the fly provides the first evidence that two different animal species can interbreed and evolve into a new, distinct animal if their hybrid moves to a new habitat, the study suggests.
- With closely related animals that can interbreed, it's not unusual for the dominant species to absorb the other, Trinkaus says.
- These wild oxen appear to have made no detectable contribution to the domestic gene pool; they did not interbreed with their domestic contemporaries.
1.1(Of an animal) inbreed: (as noun interbreeding) their energy and physique had been sapped by interbreeding...
- The Government agreed to wipe out the UK's ruddy duck population after it was found the north American duck was challenging the survival of the globally-threatened white-headed duck through interbreeding.
- New scientific information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suggests the spotted owl is not entirely dependent on old-growth forest for habitat and faces a significant threat from interbreeding with the barred owl.
- Wild Atlantic salmon stocks will be wiped out within decades because of interbreeding with escaped farmed stocks, leading scientists have warned.
