Ever heard of ligers, tigons, grolar bears, zonkeys, zorses and wolphins? These out of this world sounding names are not made up names or distorted names of the animals we are familiar with. They are real life animals which are either natural or artificial (man-made) hybrids.

First let us enlighten you as to what a hybrid is. Some of you may be aware of hybrids in the plant world; a cross between two different species of plants belonging to the same family or genus. Likewise, there are animal hybrids too. However, there are various types of hybrids that occur naturally or are done deliberately. But, the basic result of them all is that the new animal or plant is a cross between two different species, carrying features from both parent species.

Hybrids are often named combining the names of the two parent species. Since the traits of hybrid offspring often vary, depending on which species was mother and which was father, scientists traditionally use the father species as the first half of the name. So, a cross between a male lion and a female tiger is known as a liger and a cross between a male tiger and a female lion is called a tiglon.

The ligers are said to be the largest of all living cats and felines. Some female ligers are known to have reached 10 feet in length and about 700 pounds in weight. The ligers look different to the typical lions or tigers.

Many other big cat hybrids have also been recorded apart from the ligers and tiglons, such as the leopons, which are the offspring of leopards and lions, jaguleps which are a jaguar and leopard mix, and even lijaguleps - a lion and jagulep mix.

Don’t you think these animals created as a result of cross breeding are rather wierd? We once believed that such hybrids were rare and took place only in laboratories or were created artificially by a handful of people with a Frankenstein mentality. But, such hybrids seem to be more common than we once thought. In fact, it seems to be a common path of evolution today with many natural hybrids being recorded.

One such hybrid was the discovery of an unusual polar bear in Canada way back in 2006. It was the first evidence of a wild polar bear and grizzly offspring. The animal had been shot by a hunter in the Canadian Arctic and the wildlife authorities had seised the animal on noticing rather unusual features in the animal. The bear’s white coat had been interspersed with brown fur. They had also noticed long claws, a concave facial profile and a humped back which are not typical features of a polar bear’s but rather those of a grizzly bear’s. So, what exactly was it? A grolar bear or a pizzly bear? DNA reports had confirmed it was a crossbred of these two species. With the melting of ice due to global warming, and the grizzly bears invading the region of the polar bears’, such hybrids taking place on a larger scale does not seem impossible in the future. Perhaps, instead of polars, we may have more grolar or pizzly bears in the future.

Another such unusual hybrid is the wholphin. It is a cross between a killer whale and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Wholphins are known to co-exist in the wild. It is an intermediate between the two species in appearance; in size, colour and shape. Even the number of teeth differs. The bottlenose has 88 teeth and a false killer whale has 44 teeth. Guess how many teeth a wholphin has? It has 66 teeth! Wholphins are said to exist in the wild. Two are in captivity at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii.

Hybrids are common today, not only among the felids (cat family) and the marine animals, such as whales and dolphins. They are high among the equine (horse-like animals) too. They are called zebroids - the cross between a zeebra and any other equine, usually a horse or donkey. You may be surprised to learn that there are not only horses, donkeys and ponies but also zorses, zonkeys and zonies!

Then there are hybrids among various species of bovids such as the beefalo and zubrons. As the name suggests, the beefaloes were specially created for the beef market.

Hybrids are endless and are present among many species such as birds, reptiles and mammals. While we may not be able to control hybridisation of certain species that takes place naturally in the wild, or even in safari parks and zoos, we do need to keep a check on artificial hybridisation for various purposes, especially the pet trade. Many are concerned about hybridisation because the hybrid animal or plant may not be genetically strong as naturally evolved ones. The possibilities of hybridisation are endless, and could even prove dangerous, if taken out of context.

Facts and pix: Internet

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Types of hybrids

* In biology and specifically genetics, the term hybrid has several meanings.

* From a taxonomic perspective, hybrid refers to offspring resulting from the interbreeding between two animals or plants of different taxa.

* Hybrids between different subspecies within a species, for example between Siberion tigers and Bengal tigers, are known as intra-specific hybrids.

* Hybrids between different species within the same genus such as between lions and tigers are known as interspecific hybrids or crosses.

* Hybrids between different genera, for instance between goats and sheep are known as intergeneric hybrids.

* According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word hybrid is derived from the Latin word hyba meaning the offspring of a tame sow and wild boar or a child of a freeman and slave. Even though the term came into popular use in the 19th century, there are examples of it being used even in the 17th century.

* Names by which some of the types of hybrids are called: Single cross hybrids, F1 hybrids (F is short for Filial 1 meaning first offspring), Double cross hybrid. Three-way cross hybrid, Triple cross hybrid and population hybrids.

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Some examples of hybrids

Liger - lion/tiger

Jaglion - jaguar/lion

Mule - female horse/male donkey

Hinny - female donkey /male horse

Zeedonk or Zonky - zebra/donkey

Zorse - zebra/horse

Zony or Zetland - zebra/pony

Ozo, zo, or yakow - cross between

domestic cow/bull and yak

Toast or Botwana - sheep/goat

Tiglons - tiger / lion

Cama - camel/lama

Wholphin - false killer whale/bottlenose dolphin

Leopons - leopards/lions

Jaguleps - jaguars/ leopards

Grolar/pizzly bears - cross between polars and grizzly bears .