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.
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.
This clever mixture of large cats is a cross between the male tiger and the female lioness. Its well believed that this breed along with its cousin breed, the liger… have been in existence for centuries due to their territories crossing each other and their natural close compatibility. A second generation tigon is known as the litigon, with a female tigon being crossed with an Asiatic lion… with the largest ever litigon weighing in at approximately 800 lbs. That’s a lot of kitty chow to be woofing down!
The liger
Anyone who has seen the cult classic film napoleon dynamite will instantly get nostalgic over the famous, liger. This favorite of napoleons drawing subjects is a close cousin to the tigon, and is made by crossing a male lion with a female tigress. Ligers are known to be the largest cat in the entire world, with the largest liger in captivity being named Hercules and weighing close to one thousand pounds.. which earned the ginormous genetic wonder a spot in the Guinness book of world records… which of course is the talk of the town in the feline community. See you on the red carpet, Hercules!
The leopon
Furthering our adventures into the world of “how many big cat combinations can we make?”.. we stumble across the leopon. This interesting cat concoction is made from mixing a male leopard and a lioness. .. and is believed that it was originally put together this way as a means to breed for its skin to be used as fashion pieces. Unfortunately the leopon is not without its issues… as most don’t make it very far into adulthood with massive health problems and rampant feline cancer being an epidemic within the breed. Close in nature to all big cat crossovers, we should also give honorable mention to the jaglion… the jagupard… and the pumapard… use your imaginations.
The zonkey prize!
You remember the classic game show lets make a deal.. where the excited contestant has 3 doors to choose from where a shiny brand new car could possibly awaiting.. .but inevitably it always seemed like lurking behind door number 3 was the disappointing, donkey prize! Well how about a not so disappointing cross of quadruped. The zonkey! A mixture of the zebra and the donkey, these striped stubborn mules are mostly seen in Africa where their populations naturally mix. Donkeys aren’t the only thing that a zebra can mate with within the equine line… as the zebroid is considered to be any mixture of zebra and closely related horse like creature.
The Geep
You see them on farms all the time frolicking around together but have you ever considered the love connection that a goat and a sheep might produce… well, turns out that’s what becomes a geep. This combination however is rather rare… because both the goat and sheep come from different genera, or plainly put.. they just aren’t supposed to go together at all.
The grolar bear
Everyone has seen those commercials during Christmas… cute white polar bears running around and being silly while enjoying a soda. But what if that bear was slightly modified… introducing, the grolar bear. This mix between a polar bear and a grizzly was first discovered in 2006 by a Canadian hunter who thought his catch was a little odd looking. Upon medical examination and DNA testing it was determined that the species was a cross of the two popular great white northern bears. It is believed that climate change may be a possible result for the playful polars being pushed into grizzly territory, and the laws of attraction then have taken over between the two roaring wild species.
the cama
topping out our list of crazy hybrid animals, we just couldn’t resist talking about the cama. This crazy lab born ceature is what you get when you mix a male camel with a female llama. Its said that the llama which is artificially produced in dubai… was created to make a version that would put out higher wool production, while having the stoutness and nature of the camel. Unfortunately messing with science has its consequences.. and most camas are born infertile. But hey… at least they wont spit on you!