The Mating Game: Meet the Zedonk, Plus 5 More Exotic Animal Hybrids
Kathryn Yao
AOL News
(July 28) -- Zedonk! It may sound like onomatopoeia, but it's actually a rare hybrid of zebra and donkey that popped up recently at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Lumpkin County, Ga. The week-old foal has her donkey mother's ears and her zebra father's stripes on her legs.
According to C.W. Wathen, the preserve's founder and general manager, the foal has a zebra's instincts. He adds that in about two weeks, the new addition to the family will be able to roam with the rest of the animals.
Donkeys and zebras mating is not a common occurrence: The last time the preserve had a zedonk was 40 years ago.
Unlike the most recent zedonk birth, most animal hybrids occur through artificial insemination -- chalk it up to humans' desire to play god. Hybrid animals usually don't occur in nature if left to their own devices.
As for what kinds of combinations are possible, Surge Desk scoured the Web for five of the most exotic examples.
1. Cama
Camel + llama
The Camel Reproduction Centre in Dubai aimed to create an animal with the size and strength of the camel, but the docile temperament of the llama. The first cama, a male named Rama, was born in January 1998. His face is a fairly equal mix of camel and llama, and he has no hump. There have been four camas born since the experiment began.
2. Leopon
Leopard + lion
The leopon's head is similar to that of a lion, while its body carries similarities to a leopard's. While the animals have reportedly been bred in Indian and at zoos in Europe and Japan, no leopons are known to exist today.
3. Liger
Lion + tiger
Lions and tigers normally don't interbreed in the wild, and when they do, their offspring usually don't survive. The size and appearance of the liger depends on genetic traits passed down to that specific animal. It can have full-body stripes or no stripes at all. There are currently only two ligers in North America: Hercules and Sinbad, who can be seen at Miami's Jungle Island theme park.
4. Wolphins
Whale + dolphin
It all began in December 2004, when a female calf was born to a false killer whale and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at Sea Life Park Hawaii. The calf grew to the size of a whale, but her features are dolphin-like. She then mated with a bottlenose dolphin; her third and only calf, a female, has thus survived.
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5. Beefalo
Cow + buffalo (bison)
Mixing the American bison with the cow started when the buffalo population was threatened, but has also boosted American beef production. Full-blood beefalo are exactly three-eighths bison and five-eighths cow. Because of the profits that beefalo meat brings, this species will survive.