13 Amazing Animal Hybrids, from Grolar Bears to Ligers

We’ve seen many bizarre animal hybrids in popular culture. In movies, we have Sharktopus and Dinocroc, and in folklore, we have jackalopes and Jersey Devils. But peculiar animal hybrids don’t just exist in the land of make-believe. While you won’t see anything quite like a shark with tentacles or a goat with bat wings, biological hybrids can be just as fascinating as fictional hybrids.

Ligers and tigons are crosses between lions and tigers. Ligers are a cross between a male lion and a tigress, and tigons are a cross between male tigers and a lioness. Ligers look more like lions, and tigons look more like tigers.
Due to this union between the tiger, which is the largest and heaviest feline, and the lion, which is the second largest feline, ligers and tigons are also rather large. But, while tigons are the same size as regular tigers, ligers are much bigger than their parents.
In fact, the largest feline in the world is a liger named Hercules, who weighs 922 pounds (418.2 kilograms) is 11 feet (3.33 meters) long, and is 4 feet (1.25 meters) tall at the shoulder.

This bulky hybrid is a hybrid between domestic cattle and yak. These animals are larger and stronger than yak and cattle, at least those local to the region. They also seem to produce more milk and meat.
Males of this cross are sterile while females are still able to breed. “Dzo” particularly refers to males of this hybrid, while females are called “dzomo” or “zhom.”

This unique animal is a cross between a wild boar and a domestic pig. They were originally bred to resemble pigs represented in ancient European prehistoric artwork of the Iron Age.
These pigs are raised mainly in Europe, and are much more aggressive and harder to handle than domestic pigs, as one would imagine. This hybrid has been observed occurring naturally in Australia where escapee domestic pigs breed with wild boars.

As you may suspect, coywolves are a combination of coyotes and gray wolves. These hybrids tend to be larger than coyotes, and show behaviors similar to each species.
Extensive hunting of wolves over 4 centuries decimated the population; this limited the options for suitable mates, so the animals had to search outside their species. It appears that they weren’t too selective – researchers have found domestic dog DNA in their genome, too!

Clymene dolphins are another example of hybrid speciation. Endemic to the Atlantic Ocean, clymene dolphins are the result of breeding between spinner dolphins and striped dolphins.
Unlike most animal hybrids, which are the result of captive breeding, Clymene dolphins are natural hybrids. Humans have not played a role in their genesis, and they can breed normally.

Zebroids are a variety of zebra hybrids, and these hybrids have dozens of different names.
A zebra stallion and a horse mare will produce a zorse or zebrula; a zebra stallion and a pony mare will produce a zony; and a zebra crossed with a donkey is often called a zonkey or zedonk, among other names.

In captivity, many bird hybrids exist, and the Catalina macaw is one of them. As a cross between a blue-and-yellow macaw and a scarlet macaw, the Catalina macaw possesses the color patterns of both parent species.
This beautiful parrot possesses the best qualities of both macaws. We like it!

In 1847 in Poland, Leopold Walicki bred a cow with a European bison (wisent). This created a bovid known as a żubroń.
Later on, after World War I, Polish scientists bred the hardy, adaptable żubroń en masse as a cheap replacement for domestic cattle.
However, in the 1980s, their progress came to a halt due to economic difficulties and fear that żubrońs would breed with native wisents, causing genetic pollution.
Similarly, in 1880 in Canada, Col Samuel Bedson bred cows with American bison, creating another bovid hybrid known as a cattalo. When first created, cattalo were far from perfect, since male offspring were usually sterile. However, in 1965, a male hybrid bull was born, and this changed everything. Since that day, cattalos were rebranded as beefalos and sold to the general public as such.

When polar bears and grizzly bears mate, they produce hybrid offspring known as pizzly, prizzly, or grolar bears.
These bears possess traits of both of their parents, and they often have a mixture of white, brown, and black hair.
Physically, they are smaller than polar bears but larger than grizzlies, and their soles are partially covered in hair.
Mentally, they are more like polar bears stomping on toys and hurling them like polar bears stomping on ice and hurling prey.

A wholphin is a very rare cross between a false killer whale and a common bottlenose dolphin. The name suggests this hybrid is a mix of whale and dolphin, but the false killer whale is actually a species of oceanic dolphin as well. Purportedly, wholphins exist naturally in the wild, but so far, they’ve only been bred and documented in captivity.

Bengal cats are the result of breeding between domestic cats and Asian leopard cats. They were bred to evoke the feline denizens of the jungle. However, in order to make them as tame as regular domestic cats, they must be four generations removed from their wild leopard cat ancestors.
Unlike most cats, bengal cats love water. This is likely due to their leopard cat ancestor’s affinity for water.

Heliconius is a genus of brush-footed butterflies native to the New World, from South American and the southeast United States. While Heliconius butterflies seem no different from other butterflies, they are prime examples of hybrid speciation.
Many of the species in the Heliconius genus originated as hybrids of other Heliconius species and are now reproductively isolated from their parent species. This means that the Heliconius butterfly species have interbred so much that they have created completely new species.

The tiger muskellunge, or tiger muskie, is the first hybrid animal on this list that has not been created as the result of humans and naturally occurs in the wild. This carnivorous fish is a cross between the northern pike and the muskellunge, which both reside in freshwater lakes and rivers in upper North America.
Tiger muskies are born sterile, but like most other hybrid animals, they grow very quickly and are less susceptible to disease. In one study, tiger muskies grew 1.5 times faster than non-hybrid muskellunge.

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