Some things simply work better combined. For example, peanut butter and chocolate are awesome on their own, but combine the two and you get the confectionary equivalent of an orgasm. The very same principle applies to the animal kingdom, where cross-breeding has resulted in some of the most awesome animals on the planet.
7.
Liger
Hybrid of: a male lion and a tigress
The Liger is currently the largest cat in the world, combining the wisdom and ferocious fighting abilities of Lion King’s Mufasa with the cunningness and suaveness of Jungle Book’s Shere Khan. This feline perfect storm of beauty and badassness has been the result of animal captivity because nature is cruel like that and normally doesn’t allow the two species to meet.
But in artificial environments of zoos and research facilities the two star crossed lovers could finally meet and sired the magnificent liger, the biggest of which alive today is “Hercules” from Miami, coming in at roughly 904 pounds. The hugest liger in reported history however, weighted in at more than 1,759lb.
Interestingly enough, the liger is about the same size as the prehistoric American Lion, making the animal the closest thing to a real life Jurassic Park as we will ever get in the next couple of years.
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6.
Grolar Bear
Hybrid of: Grizzly and Polar bears
Once thought to only occur in captivity, the Grolar bear hybrid has been confirmed to exist naturally in the wild after a bunch of heartless bastards shot one in Northern Canada in 2006. If they did not get the death penalty there is no justice in this world…
The Grolar bear seems like a pretty impossible cross-breed. Grizzlies prefer land while Polar bears thrive nicely on ice and water, but in certain inhabitable ice-cold parts of Canada (you know, everything more than 200 miles from its southern border) there are places where the two species can meet and furiously hump from time to time, giving birth to this awesome grayish teddy.
Size wise, the Grolar bear is somewhat larger than a Grizzly but smaller than a Polar bear, exhibiting characteristics of both, like a long neck ending with a bigger head, large claws and a smooth fur, making it look pretty much like a cartoon character.
5.
Beefalo
Hybrid of: a cow and a bison
Better take notice here, because with the way things are now, soon the beefalo will be standard serving at all American households in place of regular beef. The Beefalo has been appearing naturally in the US since the 18th century, and it was already in 1800 when we started to intentionally breed our cattle with the bison.
Unlike many cross-breeds, the beefalo is fertile, meaning it can produce its own offspring, making it perfect for future ranching. The animal supposedly mixes in the very best traits of cattle and bison: its meat is as delicious as typical beef but also significantly lower in fat and cholesterol, like the bison. If the breed will catch on it might completely replace regular cattle, ending in our hamburgers and steaks but killing us significantly slower.
The only downside is that the beefalo will basically wipe out the bison population, which will be completely bred out into beefalo and eaten if modern trends continue. We should maybe hold a massive beefalo barbeque in their honor or something.
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4.
Geep
Chimera of: a sheep and a goat
The geep is not a hybrid. A hybrid is what happens when 2 species bone until something vaguely different from each of them is born. A chimera is most often the result of genetic experiments, what happens when you start combining genes at an embryo level, which is what happened in the geep’s case.
The geep is the result of combining the DNA of a sheep and a goat in order to… that was never made clear actually, but if one was to take a guess the answer would probably be “We wanted to see if it was possible”. Ah science, thanks for reminding us that one day you will doom us all.
The results of this chimerization vary greatly, occasionally producing a weird breed of hairy sheep or wooly goats, but even that eventually gets bred out in the geep’s 2nd or 3rd generation. Ultimately though, the geep is the result of bona fide mad sciencing, a real life genetic mutant, which could only get cooler if they bred a couple of eagle wings into it.
