Some animals like to venture outside of the dating pool.
Hybrid animals are the result of cross-breeding two different species with compatible genes. Some look pretty tame, while others are so bizarre that they genuinely don’t seem real. There are striped zonkeys, giant ligers, evil-looking wholphins, and even polar bear-grizzly hybrids.
Some of these animals met in the wild and bred, others have been paired up by researchers in zoos, and a few, like the wooly mouse, were created entirely in labs by modifying their DNA.
Here are some beautiful freaks of nature with a crazy family tree.
1
An extremely rare hybrid born from a mating of a female common bottlenose dolphin with a male false killer whale.
2
A hybrid between a female lion and male tiger.
3
A hybrid between the naked-neck chicken and broiler chicken, they were created by scientists as a species that could avoid the parasites that often cling to chicken feathers.
4
A hybrid between a goat and a sheep.
5
In 2025, scientists successful bred mice genetically modified with the DNA of wooly mammoths.
6
A cross between a cow and a European bison.
7
In 2019, scientists in China bred two piglets whose DNA contained the genetic material of monkeys. This was done as a first step in breeding pigs with organs that may be transferable to humans.
8
A hybrid between a male yak and a female buffalo.
9
A hybrid between a domestic bull and a female buffalo.
10
A hybrid resulting from a coyote and a wolf.
11
A male hybrid resulting from a cross between a yak and domestic cattle.
12
A hybrid resulting from a zebra and a donkey.
13
A hybrid resulting from a narwhal and a beluga whale.
14
A hybrid resulting from a male camel and a female llama.
15
A hybrid resulting from a male donkey and a female horse.
16
A hybrid resulting from a male tiger and a female lion.
17
A cross between a male zebra and a female horse.
18
A hybrid resulting from a male lion and a female tiger.
19
A cross between a grizzly bear and a polar bear.
20
The rare offspring of a male jaguar and female lion.
