Species and Hybrids

What is a species?

A species is a group of organisms which can breed and produce

fertile

offspring.

Hybrids

Sometimes animals of different species mate and produce offspring which are

not fertile

Mule

Cross between a horse and a donkey.

Liger

Offspring of a male lion and female tiger.

Liger

Offspring of a male lion and female tiger.

Tigon

Cross between female lion and male tiger.

Liger

Ligers are the cross of a male lion and a female tiger, and they are the largest of all living cats and felines. Their massive size may be a result of imprinted genes which are not fully expressed in their parents, but are left unchecked when the two different species mate. Some female ligers can grow to 10 feet in length and weigh more than 700 pounds. Ligers are distinct from tigons, which come from a female lion and male tiger. Various other big cat hybrids have been created too, including leopons (a leopard and a lion mix), jaguleps (a jaguar and leopard mix), and even lijaguleps (a lion and jagulep mix).

Zorse

Cross between a zerbra and a horse.

What do you called a cross between a zebra and a donkey?!

Zonkey

Cross between a zerbra and a donkey.

What do you called a cross between a whale and a dolphin?!

Wholphin

A cross between a false killer whale and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, wholphins are hybrids that have been reported to exist in the wild. There are currently two in captivity, both at Sea Life Park in Hawaii. The wholphin’s size, color and shape are intermediate between the parent species. Even their number of teeth is mixed; a bottlenose has 88 teeth, a false killer whale has 44 teeth, and a wholphin has 66.

What do you called a cross between a camel and a lama?!

Cama

A cama is a hybrid of two animals from different worlds — camels from Asia, and llamas from South America. The two species exhibit many differences, but camels and llamas are both camelids descended from a common ancestor that evolved in North America during the Palaeogene period. Camas were produced via artificial insemination to create an animal with the size and strength of the camel, but the more cooperative temperament of the llama.

What do you called a cross between a cow and a buffalo?!

Beefalo

Beefalo are the fertile offspring of domestic cattle and American bison.

What do you called a cross between a grizzly and a polar bear?!

Grolar Bear

The offspring of a grizzly bear and a polar bear, a grolar bear is one beast you don’t want to meet in the woods. Interestingly, unlike many hybrid animals, grolar bears are known to occur naturally in the wild. Some experts predict that polar bears may be driven to breed with grizzly bears at an increased frequency due to global warming, and the fact that polar bears are being forced from their natural habitats on the polar ice.

Clockwise: A female hybrid, male hybrid, polar bear and brown bear.

Big Cat Hybrids

Jaglion

Species

A species is a group of organisms which can interbreed and produce

fertile

offspring.