Other names: zebrass, zebronkey, zeedonk, zedonk, zebadonk, zenkey, donbra, zebrinny, or deebra
They zonkey is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. Usually a male zebra is paired with an ass mare or horse mare, but the opposite can also occur (see also Haldane’s rule / law). As with so many hybrids, the species have different number of chromosomes: a donkey has 62 chromosomes and a zebra (depending on which species) has 42 - 62 chromosomes… The hybrid zonkey has a number of chromosomes in between of both parents.
Zonkeys are generally more easily bred than a zorse, because the donkey and zebra communicate quite similair, this is not the case with a horse and zebra.
Hybrids between the ass and zebra were mentioned by Charles Darwin in his Origin of Species (1859).
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The wolphin is the extraordinary result of breeding a female bottle-nosed dolphin with a male false killer whale. In captivity there are 2 occurrences, both are in the Sea Life Park in Hawaii. The 2 captive wolphins are a mother wolphin (wolphins are fertile), named Kekaimalu, and her third young (the previous 2 young died). You can read the news artivle of 23 december 2004 here. They are also reported to exist in the wild.
Kekaimalu, which means “from the peaceful ocean” by the way, is now 23 years old and the wolphin’s size (10ft long, 600lbs) is just in between that of a bottle-nosed dolphin (6 ft, 400 punds) and a false killer whale (14 ft, 2000 pounds). Also, the number of teeth (66) are just in between that of a bottle-nosed dolphin (88) and a false killer whale (44)!
Wolphins, are known in popular seafaring lore as “The Great Grey Beast”.
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A zorse is the offspring of a zebra stallion and a horse mare. The zorse in infertile and looks like a horse with stripes. Horses have 64 chromosomes, zebra’s have between 44 and 62 (depending on the species), most zorses however have 63 chromosomes. They are not as easy to handle as purebred horses for drought and riding.
The offspring gets the coloring of the mare horse and the stripes of male zebra. A zorse is not that uncommon, the much rarer animal, that is created by crossbreeding a female zebra and male horse is called a hebra.
Update: Zorse foals can sell for $10,000 according to this article
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The Grolar is a hybrid between a grizzly and a polar bear, they are also called pizzly, grolar bear and polizzly. By their Inuit name, they are known as ‘Nanulak’, a combination of polar bear (Nanuk) and grizzly bear (Aklak). In 2006 a grolar has been shot in the wild (BBC link) by a big game hunter in Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. The bear resembled a polar bear, because of its thick, creamy white fur, but also resembled a Grizzly, because of its long claws, humped back and shallow face, as well as brown patches around its eyes, nose, back and on one foot. If the bear that was shot had been adjudicated to be a grizzly, he would have faced a possible 1000 Canadian dollars fine and a year in jail. This has been the only tangible evidence that these hybrids do occur in the wild. One other possible wild occurrence of the Grolar is the MacFarlane’s Bear, which is also suggested to be a Grolar.
Picture of the Grolar by Sarah Hartwell (Messybeast). Polar/Brown Bear adult hybrid. Rothschild Museum, Trink, England. Licensed under GFDL
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The Tigon or tion, tigron or tiglon is a crossbreed between a male tiger and a female lion. They can have spots (from the female lion’s genes) or stripes (from the father’s genes). Female tigons are fertile, while male tigons are sterile. In our former post we talked about the ligon, female ligons are also fertile while male ligons are sterile, thus ligons and tigons cannot reproduce with each other.
Tigons however can reproduce with a male lion or male tiger, see also the table below:
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Father
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Mother
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Offspring
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Lion
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Tiger
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Liger
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Tiger
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Lion
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Tigon
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Lion
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Liger
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Li-liger
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Lion
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Tigon
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Li-tigon
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Tiger
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Liger
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Ti-liger
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Tiger
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Tigon
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Ti-tigon
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Tigons can show traits of both parents, like producing lion and tiger sounds, having spots (lion) and stripes (tiger), enjoy water (tiger), males can have manes (lion). Tigons do not reach the gigantic sizes as the liger does, and usually do not reach the size of their parents. There are a lot less tigons than ligers, because it is much harder to get a male tiger to breed with a female lion than it is to breed a male lion with a female tiger.
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As you may know, tigers and lions do not live in the same area. Lions live in Africa and Tigers live in Asia, so the crossbreeding of a lion and a tiger is not something that happens in the wild. Big Cat Rescue has a piece calling people to don’t pay attention to this crossbreed, because of the inhumane practices concerned with the breeding (many birth defects and ligers usually die young). They are the largest cats in the world and by Big Cat Rescue considered as freaks.
Ligers enjoy swimming, just like tigers, but unlike lions. Recordings of ligers date back to the 19th century, with a painting of two liger cubs.
Watch the video of the liger:
Male ligers are sterile, but female ligers can reproduce. Ligers have a tiger-like striping pattern on a lion-like tawny background. What do you think about this strange hybrid?
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