Hybrid Animals
Hybrid Animals
Are they a natural occurring species, or a scientific abomination? Throughout history hybrid animals have been highly controversial subjects. Some examples of these animals are beefalos, zonkeys, wholphins, and ligers. Although some of these animals occur naturally in the wild, some are engineered in science labs.
What are some examples of hybrid animals?
The first liger was created in 1824 after Professor Valentine Bail, a director of a museum in a Dublin, bred by a female tiger and a male lion (Murano, 2009). When the first ligers were created they were christened as lion-tigers and later claimed the name ligers. The liger was made famous in the hit movie Napoleon Dynamite. You may have also heard of tigons. These are almost the same as ligers but they come from a male tiger and a female lion.
Another example of a hybrid animal is a wholphin. This animal was naturally occurring as at Sea Life Park in Hawaii a male killer whale and a female bottlenose dolphin shared an exhibit. They mated and they produced a wholphin. The employees at Sea Life Park did not know what they were looking at when the female gave birth to an animal that looked like nothing they had never seen before. (Weaver, 2010)
Some animals are thought of as hybrid animals but actually aren’t. The platypus is a good example of this. A lot of people think it is a mix of a beaver and a duck but it is actually thought of as a divergence in evolution where the beaver species had to evolve to fit adaptations. Even though it looks as though it is a mix of two animals it is actually evolution. (Weaver, 2010)
What is the downside of hybrid animals?
But with this touchy subject comes controversy. When you mix humans and animals it can be considered as an ethical issue. The first time this process was tried an aborted human fetus’ stem cells were injected into a monkey fetus still inside of its mother’s womb. The scientist said the cells “integrated nicely”, but when the
Are they a natural occurring species, or a scientific abomination? Throughout history hybrid animals have been highly controversial subjects. Some examples of these animals are beefalos, zonkeys, wholphins, and ligers. Although some of these animals occur naturally in the wild, some are engineered in science labs.
What are some examples of hybrid animals?
The first liger was created in 1824 after Professor Valentine Bail, a director of a museum in a Dublin, bred by a female tiger and a male lion (Murano, 2009). When the first ligers were created they were christened as lion-tigers and later claimed the name ligers. The liger was made famous in the hit movie Napoleon Dynamite. You may have also heard of tigons. These are almost the same as ligers but they come from a male tiger and a female lion.
Another example of a hybrid animal is a wholphin. This animal was naturally occurring as at Sea Life Park in Hawaii a male killer whale and a female bottlenose dolphin shared an exhibit. They mated and they produced a wholphin. The employees at Sea Life Park did not know what they were looking at when the female gave birth to an animal that looked like nothing they had never seen before. (Weaver, 2010)
Some animals are thought of as hybrid animals but actually aren’t. The platypus is a good example of this. A lot of people think it is a mix of a beaver and a duck but it is actually thought of as a divergence in evolution where the beaver species had to evolve to fit adaptations. Even though it looks as though it is a mix of two animals it is actually evolution. (Weaver, 2010)
What is the downside of hybrid animals?
But with this touchy subject comes controversy. When you mix humans and animals it can be considered as an ethical issue. The first time this process was tried an aborted human fetus’ stem cells were injected into a monkey fetus still inside of its mother’s womb. The scientist said the cells “integrated nicely”, but when the