Top 10 Hybrid Animals

Some may call them freaky and bizarre animals, some may find them irresistibly sympathetic, but before you decide if you are going to like hybrid animals or not, take a look at top ten hybrid animals. Hybrid animals are products of mixing two breeds of animals with the same genus. They are usually infertile, and most commonly are the product of human interference in genetics.

10. Savannah Cat
This big–eared feline creature came to existence as a mixture of a domestic cat and a serval, a wild African cat. They are the biggest domestic cats in the world, an the highest jumpers of all the cats, too. Savannahs are very intelligent, and as loyal and cuddly as dogs are. In 2001 it was accepted as a new breed by the ICA, but laws governing ownership over these cats differ from state to state.

9. Blood Parrot Cichlid
This garish orange little creature is a mixture of a Midas cichlid and a Red devil cichlid. It was first produced in Taiwan around 1986. Though they look very cute, they have a few anomalies that make their lives harder: beak-shaped mouth that causes difficulties while feeding, and deformed swim bladders. This is why animal lovers demand this breed not to be produced and sold any more.

8. Coywolf
Coywolves are the outcome of coyote and wolf interbreeding. They are bigger than regular coyotes, they are aggressive pack-hunters,like wolfs, and they have less fear from the urban areas. That is why, this quickly increasing breed is becoming a trouble in some areas, such as Durham Region, where farmers suffer major losses of livestock. Some biologists claim that this animal is a product of people’s spreading their own areas at the expense of reducing the natural habitat of wolves and coyotes.

7. Cama
This offspring of male Dromedary camel and female lama was first created in 1998 in a lab in Dubai with the aim to create an animal as big and resistant as camel is, but as easy –going, and of greater wool productivity, as lama. Interestingly, all the camas are fertile, but since mating it is physically impossible, the only way to get them pregnant is artificial insemination.

6. Yakow or Dzo
Dzo is a result of cross breeding a yak and usually a domestic cow. The males are infertile, but very strong and resistant, and that is why they are used as ‘pack animals‘ in  Mongolia and Tibet. Females or Dzomos are fertile, can be further interbred with either yaks or bulls. They give a higher yield of meat and milk than the ordinary cows.

5. Zebroids
Zorse = Zebra + horse, Zonkey = zebra + donkey and Zoni zebra + pony, are commonly named Zebroids, cross-breeds of male zebra and females from equidae family. Although their practical use, e.g. riding, can not be denied, they are usually very moody and difficult for training. None of these breeds is naturally produced, so they are almost always sterile and are often born with a certain form of dwarfism.

4. Grolar Bear
Prizzly, or Grolar bear is a product of matching polar and grizzly bear. It  has both been found in nature and produced artificially. It is known that grizzlies and polar bears live, feed and mate in different ways, so this mixture is very puzzling. However, scientists claim that, due to ice melting in the areas which are polar bears’ natural habitat, they are forced to come closer to grizzly territories, and when they come closer Prizzly happens. Prizzlies are one of the rare fertile hybrids, and the one shot on Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic proved there has been a second generation of this hybrid.

3. Wholphin
A very rare hybrid, which has only two representatives, both of which are created in captivity, is a combination of a false killer whale (not a real whale, but a very large dolphin breed) and a bottlenose dolphin. Both of the examples live in Hawaii, in the Sea life Park. The first one is a mother Kekaimalu, who had two unsuccessful pregnancies before she gave birth to her daughter Kawili Kai, whose father is a bottlenose dolphin.

2. Killer Bees
This dangerous breed is a result of a mistake. In 1956 Tanzanian queen bees were brought to Brazil to be cross bred with European bees in order to produce bees which would give more honey and adopt better to tropical conditions. They were accidentally released, and they started breeding with local Brazilian bees, and ‘created monsters‘ - Africanized Honey Bees, or AHBs. Since then, their number has increased, and the have migrated, so today they can be found both in South and North America. Their sting is not more dangerous than the one from the average honey bee, but they always attack in swarms, they are easily provoked and they chase their victims for longer distances. Every year they kill approximately two people in the US.

1. Liger
Liger is a big cat, an offspring of a father lion and a mother tiger. It looks like a big lion with tiger stripes, it takes friendliness after its father, and love for swimming after its mother. In 1953 a liger was successfully paired with a male lion, thus busting the myth of their infertility. Today, they can be found only in captivity. The most famous liger is Hercules, from a theme park in Miami, and he is also the biggest living example of the cat family.