Why do albino animals have less chance of mating than their normally pigmented siblings in a natural setting?
824395
Because they are less likely to live to breeding age and if they do they are generly not healthy enough to fight for the woman plus they have a higher chance of being sterile!
924733
Um....it would be foolish to assume that animals cannot tell a sibling from another member of the species.  Penguins can find their mate from among thousands of other seemingly (to us) identical penguins upon returning to nesting grounds.  Animals can suffer the same risks as humans do when inbreeding, which is why captive population breeding is difficult to maintain without fresh captures from the wild.  Long bred populations, and cell lines show defects, commonly high rate of cancer.  Oh, and human DNA is not so much more complex than any other, in fact, there is a lily that has a genome more than 3x the size of ours.
727102
Perhaps because they use the color to attract females.  Or, since females are more essential to reproduction, it is beneficial for the females to blend in with the environment to avoid predators.
1037519
Good question!\n\nNature has evolved molecules that pigment various parts of organisms.  Plants and flowers are the obvious case in point, but in humans, skin pigments, and those in the iris (giving us blue, green brown etc. eyes) have also evolved.\n\nIt is QUITE POSSIBLE that at some point in the past, alternative pigmentation DID evolve in humans, and the only thing we CAN say with any certainty, is that if it did, if was later eradicated from the gene pool, and does not ersist any longer.\n\nMost notably, the only ANIMALS that have evolved the colours you mention have been birds, where the ability to fly away rather than the need to camoflage and blend in is the preferred means of evading redators.  So bright colours in these cases are NOT dangerous to the organism (bird) displaying them.\n\nIt is true that some other apes (primates) DO display bright colours.  Some have bright red backsides, and in some cases, bright blue pigment is evident on parts of the bodies.\n\nSo as a final thought:  in a world where bright colouring is no longer likely to be life endangering to humans, how long will it be before a random genetic mutation causes pigmentation other than the standard tan and browns that we are used to to evolve?!
932057
Yes!  I think they can mate all they want, but will never create offspring.  They have different gnomes or something and they are from different major families.  We discussed this when i was in high school in my biology class.  But I believe a dog CAN get freaky and busy with a cat, just no outcome except maybe one sore pu$$y.  lol.\nMaybe someday they will genetically engineer the pet some of us are looking for but until science gets involved i dont think it will ever happen.  Sorry to disappoint.  But then again i have been wrong once before.  lol.
463219
The trait is X-linked, there are two alleles, orange and black. In female mammals (including humans) one of the X chromosomes in each cell is shut off at a point early in embryonic development. Which X is turned off (the one with the orange allele or the one with the black allele) is random, but every cell that descends from that cell where it is turned off is the same. Some of these cells become skin cells that determine the color of the fur at that point. So, you can see where this is going, you get patches of fur that are one color and patches that are the other color randomly distributed over the cat's body. The male is either black or orange because it has only one X chromsome that never gets turned off.\n\nYou should be able to find more details on this and other cat genetics in a lot of places on the web.
1126084
dont know about that, but i've heard that white animals are albino, a genetic mutation
17910
Because species are defined by the ability to interbreed and produce viable progeny that can still breed.  A horse and a donkey can mate to give a mule, but the resulting mule is sterile.\n\nA better question is why dogs and wolves have different names scientifically.
1064918
First thing you have to realise is that all mules are NOT sterile. Most mules certainly are, but there have been numerous authenticated accounts of mules giving birth to perfectly healthy foals.\n\nNext thing to do is to ignore those people saying that it is because of different or uneven chromosome numbers or because they are different species. Numerous  species are perfectly interfertile despite being far more distantly related than horses and donkeys and having far more widely differing chromosomes numbers. \n\nHorses and donkeys are simply different members of the same genus. Cattle and bison on the other hand produce perfectly fertile calves and are members of DIFFERENT genera. That makes them about as closely related as humans and chimps. They also differ by 3 chromosome pairs IIRC, as opposed to the single pair difference between horses and mules.\n\nSo why are mules sterile? \n\nThat’s pretty complicated and to be quite honest we still don’t know the whole story. The basic problem is that after the ancestors of donkeys and horses split the chromosomes of BOTH species fused and then those fused chromosomes re-split. That has led to a situation where the information originally carried on a single chromosome in the ancestral species is now found on 2 different chromosomes in mules and 2 totally unrelated chromosomes in horses.\n\nNormally a developing foal embryo would receive two copies of each piece of genetic information: one from the mother and one from the father. In the case of a mule foal it receives a random number of copies. It will receive three copies of some pieces of information: 2 from the mule parent and one from the horse/donkey parent, or it will receive only a single copy from the horse/donkey parent.\n\nBecause of that mismatch of genetic material the embryo has a hard time developing. Some traits it will lack sufficient information for since it has only half the required genetic information, while other traits will be overdeveloped because there are 3 or more genes where there should be only two. All mules will get pregnant if mated, but the embryo develops for just a few days and then dies because it lacks the correct genetic instruction to develop further.\n\nAs for why some mules, maybe one in a thousand, are fertile, nobody is quite sure.
28958
The evolution of the different skin colors is thought to have occurred as follows: the haired ancestor of humans, like modern great apes, had light skin under their hair. Once the hair was lost, they evolved dark skin, needed to prevent low folate levels since they lived in sun-rich Africa. (The skin cancer connection is probably of secondary importance, since skin cancer usually kills only after the reproductive age and therefore doesn't exert much evolutionary pressure.) When humans migrated to sun-poorer regions in the north, low vitamin D3 levels became a problem and light skin color evolved.\n\nDark-skinned people who live in sun-poor regions often lack vitamin D3, one reason for the fortification of milk with vitamin D in some countries.\n\nThe Inuit are a special case: even though they live in an extremely sun-poor environment, they have retained their relatively dark skin. This can be explained by the fact that their traditional animal-based diet provides plenty of vitamin D.\n\nAlbinism is a condition characterized by the absence of melanin, resulting in white skin and hair; it is caused by a genetic mutation.\n\nResearch on skin color variability:\nThe color of human skin varies from dark brown to pale pink. In attempting to discover the mechanisms that have generated such a wide variation in human skin color, Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin (2000) discovered that there is a high correlation between the coloration of the human skin of indigenous peoples and the average annual ultraviolet (UV) radiation available for skin exposure where the indigenous peoples live. Accordingly, Jablonski and Chaplin plotted the whiteness (W) of skin coloration of indigenous peoples who have stayed in the same geographical area for the last 500 years versus the annual UV available for skin exposure (AUV) for over 200 indigenous persons and found that whiteness W of skin coloration is related to to the annual UV available for skin exposure AUV according to\n\n    W = 70 - [(AUV)/(10)]\n\n(Jablonski and Chaplin (2000), p. 67, formula coefficients have been rounded to one-figure accuracy) where the whiteness W of skin coloration is measured as the percentage of light reflected from the upper inner arm at which location on humans there should be minimal tanning of human skin due to personal exposure to the sun; a lighter skinned human would reflect more light and would have a higher W number. Judging from the above linear fit to the empirical data, the theoretical maximum whitest human skin would reflect only 70 per cent of incident light for a hypothetical indigenous human-like population that lived where there was zero annual UV available for skin exposure (AUV = 0 in the above formula). Jablonski and Chaplin evaluated average annual UV available for skin exposure AUV from satellite measurements that took into consideration the measured daily variation in the thickness of the ozone layer that blocked UV hitting the earth, measured daily variation in opacity of cloud cover, and daily change in angle at which the sunlight containing UV radiation strikes the earth and passes through different thicknesses of earth's atmosphere at different latitudes for each of the different human indigenous peoples' home areas from 1979 to 1992.\n\nJablonski and Chaplin proposed an explanation for the observed variation of untanned human skin with annual UV exposure. By Jablonski and Chaplin's explanation, there are two competing forces affecting human skin color:\n\n   1. the melanin that produces the darker tones of human skin serves as a light filter to protect against too much UV light getting under the human skin where too much UV causes sunburn and disrupts the synthesis of precursors necessary to make human DNA; versus\n   2. humans need at least a minimum threshold of UV light to get deep under human skin to produce vitamin D, which is essential for building and maintaining the bones of the human skeleton.\n\nJablonski and Chaplin
175779
Brown-pigmented eyes are so dark that there could easily be green-eyes pigment there-and a previous answerer went into detail about the relative level of pigment, so there is no fear of infidelity.\nBut, in the case of kitty....\nNot to put too fine a point on it, but Im not aware of any genetic way two blue-eyed people can have a brown-eyed child normally... Blue eyes are recessive, being a very low level of pigment-If either parent carried a different gene, one that coded for brown eyes, then *they* would be brown eyed.  If you have brown eyes, but both your parents have blue eyes, I would suspect that one or both were not your biological parent.
974197
I asked that question, and there is no known mechanism. There is however a mechanism that keeps different species from being able to interbreed.
964344
Most lemurs have pretty poor eyesight in a general sense, showing better acuity at night than in the day.  For survival, they rely much more on social calls, for which they are well-known.  They react strongly to shadows on the ground near them, rather than actual birds in the sky.  I'm having trouble getting exact measurements on how far and exactly how well they see, though.\n\n(I hope it's not too late!)
648346
its something in the genes.\nwhen the skin is bombarded with UV rays it has a reaction in the cells that cause it to create the pigment that makes you tan and prevents burning, this is all as a protection. but with some people the cells aren't as sensitive as they should be, which causes people with fair skin that burn very easily or people who don't seem to tan at all.\nIn the case of albinos, they have no pigments whatsoever and can burn quite easily if exposed to the sun for too long, they do stand a higher chance of getting cancer if they have repeated exposure to the sun. this is why albino's choose to live in a temperate climates, like England, where it's not always sunny every day and some go out only at night in the summer, the invention of the 24 hour supermarket was a blessing for them. Albino's though are quite rare.
910781
they are born as what they are. you are exzactly right. if it is a zebra it isnt born as a horse if it is a leopard it isnt born as a lion. that dont make sence. just becuase it looks like another animal dont mean it is another animal till it getts it spots or strips
628069
Albinism (from Latin albus, meaning "white") is a lack of pigmentation in the eyes, skin and hair. Albinism is an inherited condition resulting from the combination of recessive alleles passed from both parents of an individual. This condition is known to affect mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. While the most common term for an individual affected by albinism is "albino", some prefer "person with albinism", because "albino" is often used in a derogatory way. The gene which results in albinism prevents the body from making the usual amounts of the pigment melanin. Albinism used to be categorised as Tyrosinase positive or negative. In cases of Tyrosinase positive albinism, the enzyme tyrosinase is present but is unable to enter pigment cells to produce melanin. In tyrosinase negative cases, this enzyme is not produced. This classification has been rendered obsolete by recent research.\n\nAbout 1 in 17,000 people have some type of albinism, although up to 1 in 75 are carriers.\n\nThere are many alterations of genes which are proven to be associated with albinism. All alterations, however, lead to an alteration of the melanin (pigment/coloring) production in the body. Melanin helps protect the skin from ultraviolet light coming from the sun (see human skin color for more information). Organisms with albinism lack this protective pigment in their skin, and can burn easily from exposure to the sun as a result. Lack of melanin in the eye also results in problems with vision unrelated to photosensitivity, which are discussed further below.\n\nThere are two main categories of albinism in humans: oculocutaneous and ocular. In ocular albinism, only the eyes lack pigment. In oculocutaneous albinism, pigment is missing from the hair, eyes, and skin. People who have ocular albinism have normal skin/hair color and many have normal eye color. People with oculocutaneous albinism can have no pigment to almost normal. Some may even tan.\n\nThe eyes of a person with albinism occasionally appear red due to the underlying blood vessels showing through where there is not enough pigment to cover them. In humans this is rarely the case, as a human eye is quite large and thus produces enough pigment to lend opacity to the eye. However, there are cases in which the eyes appear red or purple, depending on the amount of pigment present.\n\nPeople with albinism are generally as healthy as the rest of their species, with growth and development occurring as normal. Many animals with albinism, however, lose their protective camouflage and are unable to conceal themselves from their predators or prey. The survivability rate of animals with albinism in the wild is usually quite low. The largest problem people with albinism face is social, as the condition is sometimes a source of teasing during adolescent years.
1086883
Relative to humans, yes, but even then not that common. Most animals lay eggs and then leave, so they'll probably never encounter their young again. Other animals have parents that care for their young, but don't mate with them because they later leave and find other mates instead (and presumably don't want to mate with their own young). It makes biological sense to have anti-incest behavior pattern because incest produces more bad recessive traits. How they perceive that, though, who knows. Incest happens primarily in small, isolated populations where there aren't enough individuals to go around so that, probably out of a desperate sex-drive, they have incest.