This isn't to encourage people crossbreeding animals to make hybrids, they can have health problems and aren't helpful to conservation either. And people often breed them to parade them around as a "freak-show" of sorts to make money off them, regardless of any care for the animals' well-being.
But it's always fascinating when you learn of a certain hybrid you didn't know was possible-- some animals are more closely related than we realize. Everyone focuses on ligers and zorses, but there's other groups, like deer and antelope, that also have many species that are closely related despite looking so unique.
This is an elk and sika deer, for instance:
This is the one I was curious about. This is claimed to be a red deer and elk hybrid. "Wapiti in Fiordland have hybridized with red deer. Their appearance can vary, with different individuals exhibiting more red deer features and others exhibiting more wapiti features"
Also I'm told this is a roe deer and wapiti hybrid:
Much of Europe seems to face the threat of losing certain species, or at least sub-species, because they keep cross-breeding so much.
Also from the wild, this is a hybrid between a waterbuck and red lechwe.
Here he is next to some normal waterbucks:
And this is supposedly an eland/kudu hybrid. He's looking scrawnier than what I would expect from two such stoic animals. Maybe it's just a lesser kudu and common eland?
Lastly, I'm told this is a camel-llama. (Cama!)
But it's always fascinating when you learn of a certain hybrid you didn't know was possible-- some animals are more closely related than we realize. Everyone focuses on ligers and zorses, but there's other groups, like deer and antelope, that also have many species that are closely related despite looking so unique.
This is an elk and sika deer, for instance:
This is the one I was curious about. This is claimed to be a red deer and elk hybrid. "Wapiti in Fiordland have hybridized with red deer. Their appearance can vary, with different individuals exhibiting more red deer features and others exhibiting more wapiti features"
Also I'm told this is a roe deer and wapiti hybrid:
Much of Europe seems to face the threat of losing certain species, or at least sub-species, because they keep cross-breeding so much.
Also from the wild, this is a hybrid between a waterbuck and red lechwe.
Here he is next to some normal waterbucks:
And this is supposedly an eland/kudu hybrid. He's looking scrawnier than what I would expect from two such stoic animals. Maybe it's just a lesser kudu and common eland?
Lastly, I'm told this is a camel-llama. (Cama!)
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