Hybrid Animals Information

Hybrid animals are created when two closely related natural species are bred together. Hybridization of animals generally happens with exotic pet animals, as zoos tend to reserve their resources for conservation of species. The standard naming convention for naming the offspring of two species places the male's species first, creating a merged name as in liger (male lion and female tiger), lepon (male leopard and female lion) and zorse (male zebra and female horse).

  1. Ligers and Tigons

    • Lions and tigers both belong to the family Panthera. Ligers have a dominant lion appearance but retain the tiger's instinct to swim. Tigons retain darker stripes than ligers, though exhibited in both varieties. All male ligers and tigons are born sterile, as are the majority of females. The occasional female that is not sterile can breed with either a male lion or tiger. When a full-blooded lion or tiger mates with a liger or tigon, the result is liligers, litigons, tiligers and titigons respectively.

    Grizzly Polar

    • The grizzly polar, or grolar bear, occurs in captivity and in the wild. In 2006, the natural hybridization was confirmed through DNA testing. The population of hybridized polar bears and grizzlies is expected to grow with the retreat of sea ice. As the habitat of the polar bear shrinks, they come into contact with the ranges of costal grizzly bears. The first second-generation grizzly polar was shot in the Northwest Territories in April 2010, proving not all hybrids in this class are sterile.

    Zorse

    • The zorse is a hybrid of a wild zebra and any variety of domestic horse. Zorses were intentionally bred in the early 1900s in an attempt to bridge the zebra's natural immunity to the tse tse fly into the domestic horse genome. There are no records of a zorse successfully breeding with either a zebra or horse, and therefore are all considered sterile. Zorses inherit the striping pattern of their zebra ancestry but may also inherit coat spots from the mother.

    Mules and Hinnies

    • Mules have a long tradition as a work animal and are the result of breeding a male horse and a female donkey. Originally the term "mule" referred to any cross-breeding of different species. A hinnie is the result of breeding a male donkey with a female horse. Both mules and hinnies inherit the cooperativeness of their horse ancestry but with more intelligence from their donkey genes. Hinnies and mules are typically sterile.

    Sheep-Goats

    • Mating between sheep and goats is rare because they are very divergent species. An example of the sheep-goat hybrid was recorded in Botswana in 2000. The offspring was male and survived despite having a unique gene configuration (57 chromosomes versus 60 in goats and 54 in sheep). The hybrid was castrated at 10 months of age because of its overactive libido.