FASCINATING HYBRID ANIMALS

LIGER

Let us start out with one of the most well-known hybrid animals ever.

A cross between a male lion and a tigress, the liger exists only

in captivity because the habitats of the parental species do not

overlap in the wild. With weight of up to over 400 kilograms

(900 pounds), ligers are the largest of all known extant felines.

TIGON

Another cross between the two largest feline species, the 

tigon is a hybrid cross between a male tiger and a lioness.

Not as common as the converse hybrids (ligers), tigons usually

do not exceed the size of their parent species because they

inherit growth-inhibitory genes from the lioness mother.

They mostly weigh around 180 kg (400 lb).

JAGLION

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.

It has the lion’s background colour, brown, jaguar-like rosettes

and the powerful build of the jaguar.

SAVANNAH CAT

One of the hybrids naturally occurring in the wild, the savannah

cat is a cross between a serval (medium-sized African wild cat)

and a domestic cat. Savannah cats are commonly compared to 

dogs in their loyalty, and they will follow their owners around the

house like a canine. They can even be trained to walk on a

leash and to fetch.

BENGAL CAT

Bengal cats were developed by the selective breeding of domestic

cats crossed then backcrossed and backcrossed once more

with hybrids from the Asian leopard cat and domestic cat. The

goal was to create a confident, healthy and friendly cat with a

highly contrasted and vividly marked coat. These cats are

generally a bright orange or light brown colour.

COYWOLF

The coywolf is a term for a canid hybrid descended from coyotes

 and one of three other North American Canis species, the grey, 

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.

MULE

The mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.

Mules are more patient, sure-footed, hardy and long-lived than

horses, and they are considered less obstinate, faster, and

more intelligent than donkeys. Valued for their ground-covering

abilities, mules usually weigh between 370 and 460 kg

(820 and 1,000 lb).

HINNY

The converse hybrid between donkey and horse, the hinny is the

offspring of a horse stallion and a jenny donkey. Like mules,

hinnies come in many sizes but they are much rarer than mules

as jennies and stallions can be choosier about their mates than

horse mares and donkey jacks and even if they do cooperate,

female donkeys are less likely to conceive when bred to a horse.

BEEFALO

Sometimes also referred to as cattalo or the American hybrid,

the beefalo is a fertile hybrid offspring of domestic cattle

(usually a male) and the American buffalo (usually a female).

Beefalo are primarily cattle in genetics and appearance,

with the breed association defining a full Beefalo as one

with three-eighths bison genetics.