Great Uncle Fred? I was wondering how come there are so many breeds of animals? For instance, there are hundreds of types of dog, and some breeds look nothing like each other. Also, are there occasions when there are two colonies of (for instance) lizard, that are exactly the same but called two different breeds because they live in different countries? (Izzy, aged 12. Spring 2009)

Thank you, Izzy, for your most interesting question. At first I thought you were talking about species. Did you know - there are, so far as we know, 20,000 species of fish, 6,000 species of reptile, 9,000 species of bird, 1,000 amphibians and 15,000 species of mammal? There are one million species of insect but scientists reckon that there are another million waiting to be discovered and named. But you are talking about "breeds" which usually means a stock of animals within a species with the same appearance, and usually means that it has been developed into a breed by deliberate selection, by man. Like the dogs you mention. Each species has an amazing capacity for change and with a bit of patience, over a few generations, fantastic differences can be encouraged. Animals are most normally bred for their usefulness - hunting dogs, for example, or woolly sheep or beefy cattle - but sometimes we breed them just to be cute, like Pekinese dogs. But it`s not just us making different breeds. Animals adapt to different conditions and sooner or later a new breed has emerged. But there is still a lot to be learned in this area. However, I think that if there were two colonies of lizards which were exactly the same but had dfferent names, then the scientists would have sorted it out by now. There is a lot that scientists do not know but this is one thing that I think they would know. I hope this more or less answers your question. Please get back to me if you have another thought on this interesting subject.

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