The Zonkey & Other Hybrids

In a 1868 book, Darwin noted the existence of a ‘hybrid ass-zebra’

Female zebras and male donkeys don’t often have an occasion to get together, but when they do, the results are usually cute enough to star on the front-page covers of tabloids or in ‘also in the news’ sections. The Zonkey (or ‘donkra’) foal that was born recently in China’s Haicang zoo did not disappoint. News websites displayed videos of the tiny long-eared creature, with legs patterned like striped knee socks, stumbling along after its zebra mother.

The ‘zebroid’ is the commoner hybrid. In his 1868 book The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, Darwin noted the existence of a ‘hybrid ass-zebra’. Neither of these are easy affairs, however, since donkeys and wild equids have a differing number of chromosomes. Zebroid foals sometimes exhibit some kind of dwarfism or end up being sterile, though some note that hybrids tend to resemble the domesticated equine, and are better suited for work.

There are many other instances of nature playing Frankenstein, such as in the instance of the Grolar, an ashy-furred cross between polar bears and grizzlies found in northwest Canada, whose tribe is likely to increase due to global warming. Dzos—yak-cow hybrids—are popular in Tibet and Mongolia, prized for their leaner meat and higher milk yields. The Wholphin— which really ought to feature in children’s fiction with a name like that—has been described as “the extraordinary result of breeding a female bottle-nosed dolphin with a male false killer whale”. Two exist in a marine park in Hawaii, and their stunts have played a part in the Adam Sandler romcom 50 First Dates.

Then, there are jaglions (from male jaguars and lionesses), pumapards (puma-leopard hybrids), and ligers (from male lions and tigresses). Certain hybrids are dreamt up by breeders, such as the unfortunately named Beefalo.

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