The huge diversity of the animal world does not stop man from experimenting to create new species. Sometimes animal hybrids are created for a practical purpose, sometimes scientists are driven by curiosity and the desire to get an unusual, unseen individual. Representatives of not only different species are crossed, but also genera. Thoughts are being expressed about the prospect of obtaining human-animal hybrids, but this topic is rejected by society, as well as human cloning.
Definition
The concept of "hybrid" from the point of view of science is defined as the formation of a living cell or organism as a result of the interaction of different genetic forms. Known and popular hybridization of plants and protozoa aquatic microorganisms. Among interspecific, and sometimes intergeneric hybrids of the animal world, very unusual and curious specimens come across. This "mixing of blood" occurs in nature, but most of it is man-made.
Expecting a dog with a pig's head or a crocodile with elephant ears is pointless. Hybrid offspring can only appear if the crossed species have similar geneticsets of chromosomes. The closest relatives according to the biological classification can give offspring, sometimes even capable of reproducing among themselves.
Whims of the wild
In nature, animal hybrids are rare, but they do exist. They appear without any human influence. Mammals, birds, fish, even insects manage to create an "unconventional" pair:
- Juarizo. Llama and alpaca crossbreeds are quite common, this is due to the joint keeping of animals. They are slightly smaller than llamas, covered with long (up to 30 cm) hair, it is tougher than that of alpacas. Some hybrid individuals are capable of producing offspring, but they are not distinguished into a separate subspecies, unlike ligers (a hybrid of a lion and a tigress) and their offspring - liligers.
- Foxdog. A rare combination for wildlife of the warring species of the black-brown fox and arctic fox (polar fox). For an unusual color at the base of the hair is gray, and at the very tips it is black, it is called the silver fox. In captivity, artificially bred for the magnificent fur.
- Zoni, or zonk. So it is customary to call all hybrids that carry the DNA of a zebra. Rarely found in the wild. They are more or less similar to their parents, very often they have a zebroid color on the whole body or in certain areas.
- More than a dozen different variations of dog/wolf hybrids, coyotes/wolves, coyotes/dogs. They are larger than dogs, excellent hunters, very distrustful of people.
- The most popular and numerous fish hybrids are a pair of bream and roach. This is due to the coincidence of the timing of spawning in both species and the samehabitat preferences.
- Hybrid iguana. An example of intergeneric crossing of marine and terrestrial iguanas. They are found only in the south of the Galapagos Islands, where both species live. Their color is dark with white dots or stripes near the head. Scientists have also discovered offspring from hybrid animals.
- Hybrid pheasant. In nature, birds often mate not only of different species, but also of pheasant genera. Individuals can reproduce.
- Kidas (kidus). Cubs from sable and marten. They are larger than both parents in size, closer to sable in quality of fur.
- Cuff. Crossbreeds from a male hare and a female white hare. In nature, they are found in places where their habitats intersect. They don't give offspring.
Human work
Zoos and national parks around the world are working hard on breeding new animal hybrids. Sometimes the experiment is set purposefully, sometimes everything is decided by circumstances and chance. The most popular in zoos are ligers and tigons. In the first case, the lion is a male, the tigress is a female, in the second, on the contrary, a tiger and a lioness. Curiously, ligers are the largest cats on earth. Males of both hybrids are sterile, while females can bear offspring.
Scientists got other hybrids:
- Mul. "Baby" donkey and mare, strong hardy animals, live longer than horses, work well as beasts of burden.
- Loshak. The result of mating a stallion with a donkey. Their breeding is not practiced, since they do not represent economic value.
- Kama. A cross between a male dromedary and a female llama. To obtain offspring, the method of artificial insemination was used. The work was carried out at the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai. The goal was to get an individual, in size, strength and character close to the dromedary, and in terms of coat - to the llama.
- Africanized bee (killer bee). Introduced in 1956 in Brazil. Good physical strength, fertility and efficiency of African bees led scientists to the idea of crossing them with ordinary bees. The experiment was carried out in isolation, but for unknown reasons, the hybrids gained freedom. The "new" insects independently interbred with the local ones and aggressive killer bees were born. In Brazil, they killed more than 200 people and a lot of animals. They also bring benefits - they "work" perfectly on the pollination of agricultural plants, much more efficiently than ordinary bees.
- Khaynak. A hybrid of a yak and a domestic cow. Outwardly - a cow with a ponytail. Females are called pulp, males are called ju (they are sterile). Females give up to 5400 liters of milk per lactation, with a fat content of 3.2%, meat - up to 200 kg. In addition, fur and leather of special strength are valued. They live up to 36 years, giving annually one calf. Ju with a ferocious disposition is castrated and used as working animals. One bull is capable of carrying up to 600 kg of cargo on its back.
- Bison bison, or bison (depending on who was "daddy"). The first experiments were carried out in Askania-Nova. a lack ofpurebred bison was prompted to create hybrid animals. A group of individuals was brought to the Caucasus, replacing the exterminated Caucasian bison. Today, the total number of the herd here is about 600 animals.
Feline
A lot of different hybrids obtained in the cat family:
- Tiglon, or tigrolev - a hybrid of a tiger and a lioness. Quite famous and popular animals, many zoos and national parks of the world can boast of their presence. Males are sterile, females can bear offspring.
- A liger is a cross between a tigress and a lion. Very large, due to the lack of a gene that inhibits growth, they continue to grow throughout life. Sometimes they are more than twice the size of their parents. Most of them are infertile. Found in zoos and circuses in the US.
- Yaguopard, or lepyag (depending on who was the father). Hybrid cross between a jaguar and a leopard. These animals can be seen in some zoos in Europe and America.
- Leguar. Luxurious in color beast, especially beautiful black with a spotted pattern, a cross between a lion and a female jaguar.
- Leopon. A hybrid between a male leopard and a lioness. The body is from a leopard, and the head resembles a lion's, it happens with a small (up to 20 cm) mane. The color is light red with a spotted pattern.
- Lipard (lepard). From a pair of a lion and a female leopard, hybrids have a body structure similar to a leopard, they are smaller than lions, but more massive than a leopard. Color red with spotted pattern.
- Yaglev. Very beautiful crosses from a male jaguar andlionesses. Anatomically similar to the African lion, the color is predominantly black with a pattern.
- Savannah. A cross between a wild serval and a domestic cat.
- Bengals. Asian leopard/domestic hybrid.
- Shawzi. Wild jungle cat and domestic cat.
All crossbreeds with domestic cats are bred artificially, through a long and purposeful selection. As a rule, they have the habits and color of wild "parents", all are excellent hunters. At the same time, they calmly communicate with people, show affection and desire for communication.
Ungulates
Animal hybrids among ungulates are quite numerous:
Beefalo. The American bison and the cow were crossed for the sole purpose of obtaining a new source of meat. By selecting individuals with the best qualities of parents, breeders achieve not only an increase in meat yield and improvement of its taste characteristics, but also get strong he althy cattle that can grow in conditions as close to natural as possible
- Yakalo. A hybrid of a yak and a wild American bison. An attempt to breed a new breed was unsuccessful, the bulls were sterile, the survival rate of crossbreeds is very low, in 1928 the work was curtailed.
- Zebroids. All horse breeding options, including ponies and donkeys with zebras:
- zorse - zebra and horse;
- zonk – zebra and donkey;
- zoni - zebra and pony.
They have no special economic value, they are rather unpredictable in behavior, as a rule, they have zebroid markings.
Hybridscamels, on the contrary, are very practical, strong, hardy, with an accommodating character:
- kama - camel and llama;
- birtugan (females are called May) - male dromedary and female Bactrian;
- Iner - male Bactrian and female dromedary.
Bears
It is curious that a hybrid of a polar and brown bear (nanulak, grolar, pizli, aknuk) is registered both in the wild and in zoos. It was previously believed that these fairly close relatives could theoretically mate in nature, but the fact of birth, and most importantly, the survival of the hybrid in the wild, is very small. But recently, there have been three cases of the appearance of adult pizli.
The hybrid of a polar and brown bear first appeared in 1874 in the German zoo Halle. Today they can be seen in many zoos around the world. Animals are capable of reproduction and perfectly adapt to changing climatic conditions. The color varies, brown spots or stripes are randomly scattered on the white skin. In appearance, it looks more like a grizzly - a hunchbacked back, long claws, brown pigmentation around the nose and eyes, medium-sized features of the "face".
Birds
Animal hybrids are not uncommon among birds, and some of them appeared without human intervention:
- Mezhnjak - capercaillie and black grouse act as parents. It looks like an underfed capercaillie, it is larger than a black grouse, but it does not reach the dimensions of a capercaillie. The huntsmen try to shoot them, because the rather impudent mezhnyaks drive away normal males from the grouse. There are no offspring from hybrids, which leads to a reduction in the population.
- Mulard. Interspecific hybrid of birds - drakes of musky ducks and domestic ducks of different breeds: white allier, orgpington, Rouen and Beijing white. The meat breed is distinguished by the quality of meat, similar to goose, contains only 3% fat. The fattening period is within 4 months.
Wurdemann's Heron. The result of love between a great egret and a great blue heron. Initially, the birds were isolated as a separate species, but studies have shown that this is still a hybrid. It is found only in the United States in the coastal regions of South Florida. Outwardly, it looks more like a great blue heron, but differs in plumage color
Waterworld
One of the most famous hybrids of animals of the water kingdom is the red parrot fish. This species appeared in Taiwan in 1986. Their receipt is still kept in the strictest confidence. Amazing transformations begin by the age of five months, when gray-black nondescript fry turn into pink or bright orange beauties. The hybrid has a very narrow vertical slit mouth that makes feeding difficult.
In Russia (in 1952) an experiment was successfully carried out on the artificial hybridization of sterlet and beluga. The hybrid was named bester. Viable, fast growing fry gave excellent growth rates. The fish breeds superbly, gives delicious caviar and tender meat. This hybrid is still bred in fish farms today, and is in demand as a representativesturgeon fish.
Shark hybrid found in Australian waters. Crossbreeding the common blacktip shark and the Australian blacktip shark resulted in very aggressive and hardy specimens.
Most rare
The rarest animal hybrids include:
- A hybrid of a bottlenose dolphin and a small black killer whale has been obtained from marine life in captivity. Kosatkodolphin in all respects is something in between the parents. They can only be seen in a marine park in the Hawaiian Islands.
- Another inhabitant of the ocean is narluha. The parent pair consisted of a beluga whale and a narwhal. These amazing creatures can be found in the North Atlantic.
- Honoriki were obtained from a ferret and a European mink. A beautiful, but extremely aggressive animal was bred in the fur farms of the USSR. Today, due to numerous difficulties and the threat of extinction, the European mink is no longer bred.
- The kangaroo hybrid is derived from the mating of a giant kangaroo and a large ginger. The breeding of such an animal is possible only with the participation of a person.
- Hybrid of sheep and goat. "It turned out" by accident (in 2000), the animals were kept together. An amazing individual had 57 pairs of chromosomes, goats have 60, rams have 54. The male had an increased libido, he had to be castrated at the age of 10 months. The appearance of such hybrid animals was noted in Russia and New Zealand. Despite the fact that animals of both species are usually kept together, hybrid offspring almost never occur. In rare cases of mating between a ram and a goat (or a goat and a sheep), the cubs, likeusually stillborn.
Practical value
Interspecific hybrids help people survive in the most difficult environmental conditions. The working animals obtained from interspecific crossing are more hardy than their parents. They are less susceptible to various diseases. Volkosobov (a hybrid of wolves and dogs) is used to guard the borders as service dogs. Zebroids work great as pack and mount animals, and are resistant to tsetse fly bites.
Breeders often use hybridization to develop new breeds of farm animals. The phenomenon of heterosis (crossbreeds larger than their parents) is often used in beef cattle breeding (industrial breeding), growing the first generation for meat, without their further use in reproduction.
Mythical animals of the peoples of the world
Practically all peoples of the world had the most incredible "animal hybrids" in their culture. Interesting facts from the description of the life of ancient people, according to adherents of the alien theory, indicate the possibility of the existence of hybrids between humans and animals. Everyone knows centaurs and people with the heads of various animals. Mythology describes other options:
- the Egyptians have ammit: the body of a lion, the head of a crocodile;
- Islamists have beetroot: the body of a mule (donkey) with wings, a human head;
- Indians have gajasimha: the body of a lion, the head of an elephant;
- Greeks have a hippalektryon: the body of a horse with wings, hind legs - like chicken paws, a luxurious tail - like a cock;
- yEuropeans (Middle Ages) - monoceros: the body of a horse, the head of a deer with one horn, the legs of an elephant, the tail of a boar;
- the French have a tarasque: a dragon-like creature with a bull's body, a lion's head, a turtle shell, six bear legs, a scorpion's tail; the Melanesians have a hatuibwari: a human head with four eyes, a torso of a snake with huge wings, two legs resemble those of a chicken;
- The Chinese have qilin: the body of a deer, the head of a predator with a fanged mouth, a horse's mane, a bull's tail.
