Animal Hybridization

Edgar I. Manriquez BEED 4 Bio 134

When a plant or animal is bred with a plant or animal from different stock, the process is known as hybridization. There are numerous reasons to create hybrids, including increasing genetic diversity and breeding for specific traits.

In animal breeding, hybridization is used to create new breeds or to make a breed stronger. Many purebred animals are also inbred, due to a limited genetic pool.

Inbreeding tends to bring out genetic defects in animals. By hybridizing, breeders bring fresh genes into the mix, although the resulting animal is not a purebred.

 In another type of hybridization, two animals of different species within the same genus are bred to each other. This is not always possible, and when it can be achieved, the resulting animal or crop is sometimes sterile.

Most animals hybridized in this way are sterile, such as mules and zorses, a horse/zebra cross

Zonkey

A zonkey is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. "Zonkey" is not the technically correct name for such a cross.

 Hybridization also occurs in nature. This can bring out favorable traits from two different gene pools. Hybridization allows animals to adapt to changing environments, and if the hybrids thrive, a new species may emerge.

Top 10 Hybrid Animals

10. Liger/Tigon
Though they are fascinating animals, they get the last of the list because they are the most popular known among the hybrids. Ligers are crossbreeds between a male lion while Tigons are crossbreds between a male tiger and a female lion.

9. Wolf Dog
Dogs and wolves tend to crossbreed rather freely. The wolf is a shy animal depending on nuances in body language, facial expression and on hunting skills to survive.

8. Iron Age Pig

Domestic Tamworth pigs are crossbred with wild boar to create Iron Age Pigs. The hybrids are tamer than wild boar but less tractable than domestic swine and generally become specialist pork sausages. Most of them are bred for the specialist meat trade.

7. Zebroid
A zorse is the result of crossbreeding a horse and a zebra. A zonkey is the result of crossbreeding a donkey with a zebra. The Zony is the result of crossbreeding a pony to a zebra.

6. Cama
A Cama is a hybrid between a camel and a llama. They are born via artificial insemination due to the huge difference in sizes of the animals which disallow natural breeding. A Cama usually has the short ears and long tails of a camel but the cloven hooves of a llama.

5. Grolar, Pizzly
grolar/pizzly hybrid is the product of a grizzly bear and a polar bear. Although the two bears are genetically similar, they tend to avoid each other in the wild. During 16 April 2006, a hybrid bear was shot dead by Jim Martell,a hunter from the United States, in Canada.

4. Leopon
A Leopon is the result of breeding a male leopard and a female lion. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion while the rest of the bodies carries similarities to leopards. The most successful breeding programme was at the Koshien Hanshin Park in Nishinomiya City, Japan.

3. Hybrid Pheasant
The Golden Phesant has commonly been crossed with the similar Lady Amhersts Pheasant. The result is a hybrid with distinguished colors from its parents.

2. Wolphin
A wolphin is a rare hybrid formed from a cross between a bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale. There are currently only two in captivity at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii. A wolphins size, color and shape are intermediate between the parent species.

1. Ti-Liger, Ti-Tigon, Li-Tigon, Li-Liger

The top spot goes to tiligers/ti-tigon/litigons/li-ligers because it is a hybrid among the hybrids. It is a cross breed between a male tiger and a female liger/tigon or a male lion with a female tigon/liger.