User blog comment:Lord Loss/Monster Hunter Theory... Blog/@comment-217.129.17.186-20121204200248/@comment-4212769-20121204203920

Yeah, it's pretty confusing but I'll try to get it right.

First, saying they are subspecies there are four of them (Rathian, Pink Rathian, Gold Rathian and Black Rathian). In this scenario each of the Rathians have a different genetic code as they are different monsters. Not the species but the subspecies defines the code, the species gathers just the monsters that are that similar that they have almost all genes but some in common. This results in having almost all traits in common though having a few differences in behavior and appearance. These differences are scripted in the respective DNA codes. This could be the color for example with the Rathians.

Second, if they are subspecies they will mostly try to get males of the same subspecies because they want the subspecies to survive but it can occur that they take a partner of a different subspecies if they didn't find any of their own. But these mixed pairs would of course get pub with youngs with mixed code of both DNA codes and would not be recognizeable as one of the subspecies. Also we would see individuals combining both sets of traits from two subspecies. So Black Rathian wouldn't just take any Rathalos as she instinctively knows it could be the end of her subspecies so I don't think it happens too often and there are still male versions of this species. If not we know that the pure form of this subspecies will go extinct only maybe leaving some genes behind building new subspecies with the other subspecies it mated with.

I hope this covers all.