People have such a creative initiative to crossbreed species without harming or threatening the ecosystem, especially in the 21st century when lots of animals have been endangered and they have to deal with the extinction. They are not only unique and have funny combined names but also animals give us a chance to fruitfully produce and contribute to the environment the infinitive circle so no one is gonna hurt. Though we usually imagine these hybrid animals and photographically translate it by Photoshop, 18 unbelievable hybrid animals below are the realest!
(h/t: boredpanda)
#1 Liger ( Male Lion + Female Tiger)
Rumor has it of this wild liger, but, as far as we know, they only exist in intentionally bred captives. They grow very quickly and are the largest felines in the world. Having the beautiful white stripe of their fur in the back, they look more exciting than the original ones. Hercules, the largest non-obese liger, weighs over 410 kg (904 lbs) is the largest living cat on the planet.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger)
#2 Tigon (Male Tiger + Female Lion)
Similar to the ligers, tigons (or tiglons) are crossbred by a male tiger and a female lion. Although just switching the genders of two but the offspring looks way more different which has yellow stripes instead of white and they still remain the lion’s mane. They often weigh around 180 kilograms (400 lb), compared to ligers which generally weigh from 320 kilograms (710 lb) to 550 kilograms (1,210 lb). Tigons can only exist in captivity and are known to be sterile.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigon)
#3 Zonkey (Zebra + Donkey)
Zonkey is a hybrid cross between zebras and donkeys. Technically, zonkey is a hybrid of a father zebra and mother donkey. Hybrids of a male donkey father and female zebra mother are called a “zedonk,” or sometimes a “donkra”. Zebra/donkey hybrids occur in nature, such as South Africa, where zebras and donkeys live close to each other, but are exceptionally rare. Zonkey hybrids have been bred since the 19th century.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebroid)
#4 Jaglion (Male Jaguar + Female Lion)
This hybrid has the most interesting story among others. This is an oopsie combination between a male jaguar and a lioness. When parents lived together in the same zoo and the offspring was born by chance, the parent were raised to have an inseparable relationship. The Jaglion currently lives with his parents in the Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Ontario, Canada.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthera_hybrid)
#5 Geep (Goat + Sheep)
A sheep-goat hybrid (as known as shoat) is a descendant of a sheep and a goat. Sheep and goat can mate as if they are similar, but belong to different genera of the bovine family These two are two different species, and once reproduced, they are usually stillborn. There were only two living offspring born in the world, but they were infertile because the number of chromosomes was medium. Despite the widespread sharing of goat and sheep is grazing, hybrids show a very rare genetic distance between the two species. They are not to be confused with sheep and goat chimeras, which are artificially created by combining goat and sheep embryos.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Geep)
#6 Grolar Bear (Polar Bear + Brown Bear)
Have you ever watched We Bare Bears? Funny how a grolar bear is a hybrid of polar bear and grizzly bear. Grolar bears can be found both in the captivity and in the wildlife. The occurrence of this hybrid in nature was confirmed in 2006 by testing the DNA of this bizarre looking bear that had been shot near Sachs Harbor in the Northwest Territories on Banks Island in the Arctic, Canada. The number of identified hybrids has since increased by 8, and they are all the descendants of the same female polar bear.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly polar_bear_hybrid)
#7 Coywolf (Coyote +Wolf)
A coywolf are hybrids of male western gray wolves (Canis lupus) and female western coyotes (Canis latrans). All combinations of hybrids tend to be larger than coyotes and smaller than wolves. They show intermediate behavior between coyotes and other parent species.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf)
#8 Zebroid (Zebra + Any Other Equine)
Zebras are the offspring of all matings between zebras and other horses to make hybrids. Most often, he is a zebra stallion. The descendants of the donkey and the zebra are called donkra, and the descendants of the word and the zebra are called hebra, which is still exist but rare, they are generally infertiled. Zebroids have been bred since the 19th century.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebroid)
#9 Savannah Cat (Domestic Cat + Serval)
The Savannah Cat is the largest one of the cat breed. The Savannah Cat is a littermate of a domestic cat and a serval, medium, large-eared wild African cat. The unusual mating was popular among breeders in the late 1990s, and in 2001 it was accepted as a new registered breed by the International Cat Association (TICA). On April 7, 1986, a male serval belonging to G. D. Frank Susie Woods was crossed with a Siamese house cat, producing the first Savannah cat (called Savannah). In May 2012 TICA accepted savannah cat as a championship breed.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah_cat)
#10 Wholphin (Male False Killer Whale + Female Bottlenose Dolphin)
The wholphin is a special hybrid between a male Horse Killer Whale and a female Bottlenose Dolphin. The offspring can reproduce naturally, and it is reported that they exist in the wild because one of them that is currently bred in Hawaii’s Marine Life Park. 3 little wholphins were born in 2004 since it was able to have a high fertility to reproduce.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholphin)
#11 Beefalo (Buffalo + Cow)
A combination of a buffalo and a cow, beefalo (also known as “cattalo”), they have been around since 1800 and are less ecologically damaging when grazing more vigorously than small. Unfortunately, as a result of breeding, it is believed that there are only four herds of wild buffalo that are not contaminated with cow genes.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Beefalo)
#12 Hinny (Female Donkey + Male Horse)
Hinny hybrids are some of the most prevalent non-natural hybrids that reproduce by a reciprocal process. They are the offspring of a female donkey and a horse. They are slightly smaller and have thicker fur than horses. Because each form of hinny has a distinct number of chromosomes, they are unable to breed and are extremely difficult to get.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinny)
#13 Narluga (Narwhal + Beluga)
It is a hybrid animal that is a mixture of original narwhal and beluga whale. This type of hybrid whale was discovered by Inuit surviving hunter Jens Larsen in the 1980s when he killed three from the Disko Bay coast of Greenland. Mads Peter Heide Jorgensen discovered evidence of a narluga in 1990 while collecting narwhal specimens on the west coast of Greenland. He found a skull on the roof of Jens Larsens. The upper teeth point to the front, some spiraling or being, and by sharing the characteristics of the two whales, there is ample evidence to suggest that it is different from narwhal and beluga.
(source: golden.com/wiki/Narluga-VWPNJNK)
#14 Cama (Camel + Llama)
A cama is a little animal that resembles a small fluffy camel. It’s a cross between a male camel and a female llama. Since camas cannot reproduce normally in the wild, some scientists have created their first babies by artificial insemination. This intended to create an animal capable of generating more wool than a llama, which was first reproduced in 1998.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Cama)
#15 Dzo (Cow + Wild Yak)
It was originated in Mongolia and Tibet as a hybrid between domestic cattle and yaks. They are stronger and larger in size than their fertile parents since they are the result of a primitive hybrid bullish phenomena. In comparison to cattle and yak, they produce significantly more milk and meat.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzo)
#16 Leopon (Male Leopard + Female Lion)
Leopon’s appearance is evocative of Ammut, the mythological animal with whom we all fell in love. The leopon is a rare mating between a female lioness and a male leopard. The head is lion-like, but the body is leopard-like. In India, the first Leopon was born in captivity in 1910, but it did not live very long. There are currently only 100 leopards surviving in the world, and they are all in captivity due to somatic crossbreeding.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopon)
#17 Mulard (Mallard + Muscovy Duck)
Mulard (or moulard) is a cross between the domestic Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata domestica) and the domestic duck (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus). Because of the breed’s excellent meat production, American Pekins are widely used to breed mulards. They are dubbed “mule ducks” as a result of the fact that it is sterile, like many interspecific F1 hybrids. While natural insemination can be utilized to create mulards, artificial insemination is used more frequently and with greater results.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulard)
#18 Żubroń (Cow + European Bison)
It is stronger and more resistant to illness, thus I believe it can first take the place of the smaller. In Poland’s Bialowieski National Park, there are now just a small herd which is still in the existance. Leopold Walicki was the first to create the Żubroń in 1847, but actually the hybrids emerged earlier. Various scientists examine Żubroń as a livestock alternative after World War I. Żubroń was shown to be more long-lasting and disease-resistant. It can also be bred on marginal pastures with minimum breeding on large national agricultural farms (SAFs) that lack the infrastructure of animal farms.
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Żubron)
