Legend is full of strange, hybrid creatures, and Photoshoppers have dedicated countless hours to creating new ones. But this list contains no Photoshopped images: all of these animals are real! You’ve all heard of the liger, but what about the narluga? Or the leopon?
This list of REAL hybrid animals will surprise and amaze you. What does the future hold, with advances in genetic engineering and cloning? Only time will tell! Keep reading to find out more about these strange creatures.
Liger ( Male Lion + Female Tiger)
The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress (Panthera tigris). Thus, it has parents with the same genus but of different species.It is the largest of all known extant felines.Ligers enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Ligers exist only in captivity because the habitats of the parental species do not overlap in the wild. ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tiglons which tend to be about as large as a female tiger.
Tigon (Male Tiger + Female Lion)
A tigon is the result of a male tiger and female lion mating. Tigons exhibit visible characteristics of both parents, some having both spots from the mother and stripes from the father. Regardless of which parent they take after, they still resemble some fearless predators!
Jaglion (Male Jaguar + Female Lion)
Also known as jaguon, the jaglion is the offspring between a male jaguar and a female lion. This mounted specimen is on display at the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Hertfordshire, England. It has the lion’s background color, brown, jaguar-like rosettes and the powerful build of the jaguar.
Zebroid (Zebra + Any other Equine)
A zebroid (also zedonk, zebra mule, and zebrule) is the offspring of any cross between a zebra and any other equine: essentially, a zebra hybrid. In most cases, the sire is a zebra stallion. Zebroid is the generic name for all zebra hybrids. The different hybrids are generally named using the portmanteau convention of sire’s name + dam’s name. There is generally no distinction made as to which zebra species is used. Examples include: zorse, zebrule, zonkey, zebonkey, zony.
Wholphin (Bottlenose Dolphin + False Killer Whale)
A Wholphin or Wolphin is a rare hybrid, born from a mating of a female Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with a male False Killer Whale (Pseudorca crassidens). There are currently only two in captivity, both at Sea Life Park in Hawaii.Wholphins, though not commonly sighted by fisherman, are known in popular seafaring lore as “The Great Gray Beast.”
Kekaimalu, the first wholphin in captivity, proved fertile when she gave birth at a very young age. The calf died after a few days. However, in 1991, Kekaimalu gave birth once again, to daughter Pohaikealoha. For 2 years she cared for the calf, but did not nurse it (it was hand-reared by trainers). Pohaikealoha died at age 9.
Beefalo or cattalo (Domestic Cattle + Americon Bison)
Beefalo or cattalo are the cross between buffalo and cows. Accidental crosses were noticed as long ago as 1749, but the breed was created to combine the characteristics of both animals for beef production. These beasts are wreaking havoc around the Grand Canyon since they consume 10 gallons of water, defecate at the watering holes and also eat the fields bare
Mulards ( Pekin + Muscovy ducks)
Mulards are the hybrid offspring of Pekin and Muscovy ducks. Due to muscovies having a tendency to intermingle with other domestic duck breeds, interbreeding does occur. However, mulards are mostly commercially produced on farms for meat and foie gras. I wonder if they are as tasty as the Peking Duck dish
Coywolf (Wolf + Coyote)
The coywolf is a term for a canid hybrid descended from coyotes and one of three other North American Canis species, the gray, eastern and red wolf. Coyotes are closely related to eastern and red wolves, having diverged just 150,000–300,000 years ago and evolved side by side in North America.
Grolar (Grizzly Bear + Polar Bear)
The grolar is a rare hybrid between a grizzly and polar bear. Although these two species are genetically similar and often found in the same territories, they usually tend to avoid each other and they have different breeding habits. Grizzlies tend to live and breed on land while polar bears prefer breeding on the ice. Yet, grolars have been recorded to occur both in captivity and in the wild.
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