Hybrid Vigor

My grandpappy raised fighting cocks in southern Ohio. As a young boy growing up, he'd take me aside and teach me the virtues of the sport and the part which most intrigued him: breeding. He took great pride in breeding fighting cocks. He was most proud of tending three pure bloodlines: the butcher, the hulsey, and the hatch. Why tend three pure bloodlines you might ask? Why not just focus on "the best of breed" fighting cock? That's just it! None of the three were the best. The best fighters invariably came sparking from the colorful, brilliant crossing of any two of these bloodlines. Grandpappy's favorite was crossing the hatch with the hulsey. For whatever reason, such offspring got the piss from one line and the vinegar from the other. Such "kick-starting" of evolution is technically known as heterosis. Grandpappy called it by it's colloquial term: "hybrid vigor." "Son," he'd say, "you'll get the best of both... and a little something extra too!"

Tiger Woods, Jason Kid, Barack Obama, and the liger of Napoleon Dynamite fame... all mixed breeds. Do they have a leg-up? Do they exemplify hybrid vigor? Not necessarily. There is also a tendency in nature that countermands hybrid vigor, namely, "outbreeding depression." For example, a liger (although bigger and more power than either a pure bred lion or tiger) because of it's proportions relative to what a natural habitat demands, would not live long in the wild. Not to mention, it's also sterile. But with regard to Tiger Wood's, there can be no doubt I think, that with him, we indeed got a "little something extra too!"