A tigon is the result of a male tiger and female lion mating. Tigons exhibit visible characteristics of both parents, some having both spots from the mother and stripes from the father.

A grolar bear, or ‘pizzly bear,’ is a rare ursid hybrid that has occurred in the wild and in captivity. The hybrid animal is a cross between polar and brown bears. While they appear to be a split between the two animals, they are closer to polar bears behaviorally.

Beefalo or cattalo are the cross between buffalo and cows. Accidental crosses were noticed as long ago as 1749, but the breed was created to combine the characteristics of both animals for beef production.

Ligers are the offspring of male lions and female tigers and are the largest of all known extant felines. Ligers only exist in captivity where they are deliberately bred as the habitats of lions and tigers do not overlap in the wild.

Jaglions are the incredibly rare occurrence when jaguars and lions mate. Two jaglions were born in 2006 at Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Barrie, Ontario as the result of a close friendship between the two species unintended by the zoo.

Narlugas are the offspring of narwhals and belugas. Narwhals and belugas are the only two members of the monodontidae family of whales, which is why they are able to crossbreed, but sightings are rare.

Hinnies are the product of a male donkey and a female horse, which make them basically reverse mules. However, hinnies are slightly smaller and far less common than mules.

The coywolf or woyote is a hybrid descended from coyotes and gray wolves. They tend to be larger than coyotes, but smaller than wolves, sharing behavioral characteristics of both species.

Zebroids are the offspring of a zebra and any other equine. While zebroids are rare, they have been around for a long time, even Charles Darwin noted several zebra hybrids in his works.

A wholphin is the extremely rare mix of a female common bottlenose dolphin and a male false killer whale. Wholphins are very intermediate between both parents when it comes to their characteristics. Bottlenose dolphins have 88 teeth and false killer whales have about 44, which ends up making the wholphin have 66.

The hybrid between cows and wild yaks creates either a dzo if the offspring is male or a dzomo if female. They exist mostly in Tibet and Mongolia and are both stronger and larger than cows and yaks.

Savannah cats are a cross between a serval and a domestic cat. They can grow quite large, weighing up to 25 pounds and behave strangely more like dogs.

A cama is a cross between a male dromedary camel and a female llama. The cama didn’t exist until 1998 when it was produced via artificial insemination with the goal of making the animal more capable of higher wool production.

Geeps are the hybrid offspring of a sheep and a goat. While the two species seem similar, they are very different and rarely occur naturally. Most hybrids between sheep and goats die while they’re still in embryo form. ‘Sheep-goat chimera’ is an animal that has been artificially produced by combining embryos of the two animals.

Mulards are the hybrid offspring of Pekin and muscovy ducks. Due to muscovies having a tendency to intermingle other domestic duck breeds, interbreeding does occur. However, mulards are mostly commercially produced on farms for meat and foie gras.

The blacktip shark hybrid is the result of an Australian blacktip shark mating with the common blacktip. This shark was discovered recently and until then, there were no known hybrid shark species.

—providr