Six amazing hybrid animals

Bryan Nelson, Mother Nature Network – Mon May 3, 6:28 pm ET

Ligers, tigons and grolar bears, oh my! Take a look at some of these otherworldly hybrid animals and you'll realize the possibilities are endless.

Though they rarely occur in nature, individuals from different but closely related species do occasionally mate, and the result is a biological hybrid — an offspring that shares traits from both parent species. You may have heard of the mysterious sheep-pig creature, but it turns out that one isn't a true hybrid.

Here are six bizarre, but truly unique half-breeds.

(Photo: Wiki Commons / GNU)Zebroids

A zebroid is the offspring of a cross between a zebra and any other equine, usually a horse or a donkey. There are zorses, zonkeys, zonies, and a host of other combinations.

Zebroids are an interesting example of hybrids bred from species that have a radically different number of chromosomes. For instance, horses have 64 chromosomes and zebra have between 32 and 44 (depending on species). Even so, nature finds a way.

(Photo: Jason Douglas / Wiki Commons / public domain)Savannah cats

Savannah cats are -- contrary to popular belief -- from a coastal town in Georgia. But what they are is what you get from mixing your everyday domestic cat with an African Serval cat. Historians believe the first one was bred sometime in the mid 1980s by a cat breeder in, of all places, Pennsylvania. The International Cat Association first recognized the cat in 1996. The hybrid cat can now be purchased or perused in copies of 'Savannah's Illustrated' magazine.

(Photo: aliwest44 / Flickr)Ligers

Ligers are the cross of a male lion and a female tiger, and they are the largest of all living cats and felines. Their massive size may be a result of imprinted genes which are not fully expressed in their parents, but are left unchecked when the two different species mate. Some female ligers can grow to 10 feet in length and weigh more than 700 pounds.

Ligers are distinct from tigons, which come from a female lion and male tiger. Various other big cat hybrids have been created too, including leopons (a leopard and a lion mix), jaguleps (a jaguar and leopard mix), and even lijaguleps (a lion and jagulep mix).

(Photo: Mark Interrante (aka pinhole) / Flickr)Wholphins

A cross between a false killer whale and an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, wholphins are hybrids that have been reported to exist in the wild. There are currently two in captivity, both at Sea Life Park in Hawaii.

The wholphin's size, color, and shape are intermediate between the parent species. Even their number of teeth is mixed; a bottlenose has 88 teeth, a false killer whale has 44 teeth, and a wholphin has 66.

(Photo: via Inhabitots.com)Grolar bears

The offspring of a grizzly bear and a polar bear, a grolar bear is one beast you don't want to meet in the woods. Interestingly, unlike many hybrid animals on this list, grolar bears are known to occur naturally in the wild.

Some experts predict that polar bears may be driven to breed with grizzly bears at an increased frequency due to global warming, and the fact that polar bears are being forced from their natural habitats on the polar ice.

(Photo: via readthesmiths.com)Beefalo

Beefalo are the fertile offspring of domestic cattle and American bison. Crosses also exist between domestic cattle and European bison (zubrons) and yaks (yakows). The name given to beefalo might be the most suggestive, since the breed was purposely created to combine the best characteristics of both animals with an eye towards beef production.

A USDA study showed that beefalo meat, like bison meat, tends to be lower in fat and cholesterol. They are also thought to produce less damage to range-land than cattle.

Bryan Nelson is a regular contributor to Mother Nature Network, where a version of this post originally appeared.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20100503/sc_ygreen/sixamazinghybridanimals

Flat-headed cat of southeast Asia is now endangered

RIGHT: A flat-headed cat caught by a camera trap in Tangkulap Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia in March 2009

Friday, 19 March 2010
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

One of the smallest and most enigmatic species of cat is now threatened with extinction.

According to a new study, habitat loss and deforestation are endangering the survival of Asia's flat-headed cat, a diminutive and little studied species.

Over 70% of the cat's habitat has been converted to plantations, and just 16% of its range is now protected.

The cat, which has webbed feet to help hunt crabs and fish, lives among wetland habitats in southeast Asia.

Details on the decline of the cat's range are published in the journal PLoS ONE.

The flat-headed cat is among the least known of all wild cat species, having never been intensively studied in its natural habitat.

Weighing just 1.5 to 2kg, the cat is thought to be nocturnal, adapted to hunting small prey in shallow water and along muddy shores.

Now restricted to a handful of tropical rainforests within Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, nothing is known about the size of each cat's home range or the density of the remaining population.

So in an attempt to estimate how the species is faring, a team of scientists gathered together all known information about where the cat is thought to live, including sightings, pictures taken by camera traps and dead specimens.

The team, led by Mr Andreas Wilting of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany gathered 107 records overall, which they then used to create a computer model that predicts the cat's historical and current distribution.

That confirmed that flat-headed cats like to live near large bodies of water such as rivers and lakes.

They also prefer coastal and lowland areas.

Crucially for the species's survival though, the researchers found that just 16% of its historical range is fully protected according to criteria laid down by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Other areas are also protected, but these are large national parks, which in southeast Asia tend to be located at higher elevations where the flat-headed cat is not thought to roam.

Around 70% of its former range may already have been converted to plantations to grow crops such as palm oil.

Also, two-thirds of all the locations the cat has been recorded in are now surrounded by areas in which high densities of people live.

The cat's scarcity is underlined by the fact that it has been photographed just 17 times by camera traps.

In comparison, other felids in the region, such as tigers, leopard cats, marbled cats and Asian golden cats are regularly photographed this way.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8574000/8574155.stm

Elusive golden cat caught on film

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

by Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

One of the most elusive of all wild cats has been photographed deep in the jungle of Uganda.

Three images of a wild African golden cat were taken by a digital infrared camera trap set up by biologist Dr Gary Aronsen of Yale University in the US.

To his knowledge, just one other image of a wild African golden cat has ever been published.

Although taken in black and white, the new photos reveal this particular golden cat actually has a dark coat.

The cat is so rare few researchers working in African forests have seen it.

A colleague of Dr Aronsen's has worked for years in Kibale National Park, Uganda where the photos were taken, and has seen the animal only once, while Dr Aronsen knows of only one other published photograph of the cat in the wild, taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that while many villagers and locals may see the cat crossing roads, or maybe raiding domesticates, there are just not that many researcher sightings. We're usually looking for other things."

As a result, says Dr Aronsen, there are no direct field studies of the African golden cat (Profelis aurata).

Most studies that have been done are based on scat analyses.

"There is very little known about this felid, what kind of habitat it prefers etc," he says.

"It is spread across equatorial Africa, but it is cryptic and we presume solitary, making observations few and far between."

The African golden cat is a medium-sized cat, about 80cm long, that lives within forest across central and west Africa.

Despite its name, its fur colour is variable and it can be either spotted or not.

"The golden cat is melanistic, meaning that its colour varies over its lifetime, and across the continent," explains Dr Aronsen.

"I was disappointed that the cameras could not give me more data on [the cat's] colour, but the images suggest it is a 'dark phase' cat."

It is one of two cat species known to live within Kibale National Park, the other being the serval.

Servals are slim, long cats, while the golden cat is muscular and compact.

Dr Aronsen originally set up his camera trap to take images of primates living within the park.

"For the most part, the cameras capture amazing images of elephants, monkeys, chimpanzees, duiker and buffalo. The cameras also can record movies, so you can see multiple animals in a group, such as chimpanzees."

But he was still surprised when it recorded three separate images of a golden cat, which are published in the African Journal of Ecology.

"That meant that the camera was located within the cat's core area," he says.

The images were taken in an old-growth forest patch located within a place called Mainaro, which is a patchwork of old-growth, regenerating, and replanted forests, Dr Aronsen explains.

"Given that three images were captured within an old-growth patch, I'd say that the Kibale golden cats may prefer this habitat. But the range of any cat is large, and so they can go anywhere to hunt."

Aronsen himself saw his first and only wild African golden cat this summer, when one looped along in front of his motorbike as he travelled to conduct field work in a remote area of replanted forest.

More photos at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8259000/8259573.stm

Elusive golden cat caught on film

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

by Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

One of the most elusive of all wild cats has been photographed deep in the jungle of Uganda.

Three images of a wild African golden cat were taken by a digital infrared camera trap set up by biologist Dr Gary Aronsen of Yale University in the US.

To his knowledge, just one other image of a wild African golden cat has ever been published.

Although taken in black and white, the new photos reveal this particular golden cat actually has a dark coat.

The cat is so rare few researchers working in African forests have seen it.

A colleague of Dr Aronsen's has worked for years in Kibale National Park, Uganda where the photos were taken, and has seen the animal only once, while Dr Aronsen knows of only one other published photograph of the cat in the wild, taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that while many villagers and locals may see the cat crossing roads, or maybe raiding domesticates, there are just not that many researcher sightings. We're usually looking for other things."

As a result, says Dr Aronsen, there are no direct field studies of the African golden cat (Profelis aurata).

Most studies that have been done are based on scat analyses.

"There is very little known about this felid, what kind of habitat it prefers etc," he says.

"It is spread across equatorial Africa, but it is cryptic and we presume solitary, making observations few and far between."

The African golden cat is a medium-sized cat, about 80cm long, that lives within forest across central and west Africa.

Despite its name, its fur colour is variable and it can be either spotted or not.

"The golden cat is melanistic, meaning that its colour varies over its lifetime, and across the continent," explains Dr Aronsen.

"I was disappointed that the cameras could not give me more data on [the cat's] colour, but the images suggest it is a 'dark phase' cat."

It is one of two cat species known to live within Kibale National Park, the other being the serval.

Servals are slim, long cats, while the golden cat is muscular and compact.

Dr Aronsen originally set up his camera trap to take images of primates living within the park.

"For the most part, the cameras capture amazing images of elephants, monkeys, chimpanzees, duiker and buffalo. The cameras also can record movies, so you can see multiple animals in a group, such as chimpanzees."

But he was still surprised when it recorded three separate images of a golden cat, which are published in the African Journal of Ecology.

"That meant that the camera was located within the cat's core area," he says.

The images were taken in an old-growth forest patch located within a place called Mainaro, which is a patchwork of old-growth, regenerating, and replanted forests, Dr Aronsen explains.

"Given that three images were captured within an old-growth patch, I'd say that the Kibale golden cats may prefer this habitat. But the range of any cat is large, and so they can go anywhere to hunt."

Aronsen himself saw his first and only wild African golden cat this summer, when one looped along in front of his motorbike as he travelled to conduct field work in a remote area of replanted forest.

More photos at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8259000/8259573.stm

New project to protect wildcats

A new project has been launched with the aim of giving the endangered Scottish wildcat greater protection.

The Cairngorms Wildcat Project, which was launched by Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham, has the backing of various agencies.

About 400 pure breds are thought to be left, with their survival threatened by cross-breeding with domestic cats.

The project involves raising awareness, neutering feral domestic cats and "wildcat-friendly" predator control.

The Cairngorms National Park is seen as a stronghold for the species.

The park authority, Forestry Commission Scotland, the Highland Wildlife Park's owners the Royal Zoological Society Scotland, Scottish Gamekeepers Association and Scottish Natural Heritage are involved in the new project.

It was launched at the Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig, which has captive wildcats.

Scottish wildcats can be very difficult to tell apart from domestic and feral cats.

Larger than pet cats, they have grey-brown striped fur and a short bushy tail.

They are shy and mostly nocturnal and prey on small mammals. A female can have up to eight kittens in her den.

Wildcats were once widespread throughout the UK, but by the 19th Century were thought to be extinct.

Separately, the Scottish Wildcat Association (SWA) led by Steve Piper has achieved charitable status

Mr Piper described previous government agency attempts to survey and protect the wildcat as "half-hearted".

He said the animal was a unique predator that had been resident in Britain for at least two million years, sharing space with everything from woolly mammoths to cave lions and surviving entire ice ages.

But he said more recently it had "fallen foul" of persecution, urban development and, increasingly, hybridisation with domestic feral cats.

The film-maker appealed to farmers and owners of shooting estates to help protect the species.

See video at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/puffbox/hyperpuff/audiovideo/scotland/wide_av_hyperpuff/8034259.stm

Scientists sound the alarm that wildcats face wipeout

By Hector Mackenzie
Published: 24 April, 2009

A NEW charity believes the Scottish wildcat could face extinction within five years unless action is taken to protect the ultra-rare creature's dwindling numbers.

Scientists probing the issue have estimated that as few as 400 pure wildcats remain in the Highlands with little being done to try and reverse the decline.

Their plight was thrust into the spotlight in Ross-shire at the end of December last year when the Journal reported claims of a "frenzied" attack by a feline creature on a retired art teacher living near Alness.

Police at the time insisted they regarded Pat Macleod (73) — who required hospital treatment for cuts following an evening incident near her home — as a credible witness and consulted experts in the field to try and get to the bottom of the mystery. One theory was that Ms Macleod had by chance disturbed a "hybrid" wildcat.

In the wake of a storm of national media interest in the story that followed, Steve Piper, the leading light behind the new Scottish Wildcat Association (SWA), appealed for a calm, logical approach to the issue and hit out at some of the more lurid headlines, pointing out that wildcats are typical very cautious creatures who try to avoid contact with humans.

Speaking this week, Mr Piper confirmed the SWA has now been officially registered as a charity.

He says that wildcats have been resident in Britain for at least two million years and shared space with everything from woolly mammoths to cave lions, surviving ice ages.

More recently they have fallen foul of human persecution, urban development and, increasingly, hybridisation with domestic feral cats, bringing numbers crashing down, he warned.

Added Mr Piper, "In 2004 scientists concluded that around 400 pure wildcats remained in the Highlands and developed an action plan to save them. Five years down the line no apparent progress has been made and numbers seem to be falling even lower, whilst the Government body responsible for action, Scottish Natural Heritage, seem to be paralysed by inertia and keen to blame others for it.

"There has been a lot of talk and half-hearted gestures like the recent wildcat population survey — it was so poorly funded the ecologists were left with nothing to work with, it was impossible to achieve the detail needed and everyone knew it.

"Shooting estates do cause wildcats a lot of problems but it definitely wasn't their idea to fund a survey of one of the world's rarest and most elusive creatures with pocket change —that was all SNH."

He said the charity "plans to get things moving in the right direction and have already started to build an excited buzz amongst conservationists and the public".

Membership of the Association is open to individuals and commercial sponsors alike.

The charity is run voluntarily and keeps overheads to a minimum so that maximum funds, generated through membership and donations, go on front line projects such as the official captive breeding-for-release program and a range of awareness and educational campaigns.

One such campaign is in partnership with charities including Advocates for Animals, Scottish Badgers and the International Otter Survival Fund to ban snares in Scotland. This has attracted public support but strong opposition from many in the rural community who argue that snares are a cheap and essential pest control device .

Said Piper, "We need people like farmers and shooting estates to work with us saving the wildcat and we absolutely understand their financial and practical concerns regarding banning snares.

"That said, snares are brutal and indiscriminate devices that kill many non-target species including wildcats and there are alternatives such as wildcats themselves; their staple food is rabbit, they defend their territory against foxes and feral cats and they don't need a licence to kill hares.

"Wildcats also bring financial advantages as subsidy for any loss of grouse or rabbit damage with tourists willing to pay hundreds to sit in a hide just to catch a glimpse of this beautiful creature; that doesn't have to mean coachloads of people trampling around the Highlands, it can be just a couple of wildlife watchers staying at the local B&B.

"That's good economics for local communities and a much better option than dealing with a feral cat colony which is the inevitable alternative — surely it's worth trying things differently to save an animal absolutely unique to Scotland and so intimately entwined with its history and culture."

More information on the charity is available through its website, www.scottishwildcats.co.uk

* Alness-based Inspector Matthew Reiss, briefly addressing the issue of police involvement in wildlife issues, told last week's Highland Council Black Isle ward forum that a week after last year's cat attack reports near Alness, a dead animal had been retrieved from a ditch nearby. Evanton-based wildlife liaison officer PC George Ewing said later the animal had been found in a wooded area near Milnafua by local children. It is believed the creature may have been struck by a vehicle.

editor@rsjournal.co.uk

http://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/6093

Man finds African wildcat in Uptown backyard

by Coleman Warner, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday February 18, 2009, 8:08 AM

An African wildcat similar to this one showed up in an Uptown backyard Tuesday.
When Carl Henderson stepped into the backyard of his mother's Uptown home Tuesday at mid morning, he was checking out a neighbor's report of raccoon playing about.
He found something quite different.

Henderson encountered what looked like a small cheetah, 22 pounds and lean, two feet tall in the arch of its back, a long tail, with black and brown spots. An intimidating, lovely feline in an unlikely spot.

"The spots and design on it, the natural nature thing," the 58-year-old New Orleanian said later in the day, still flabbergasted at the mysterious find. "An artist couldn't do that. It was a sight for the eyes."

What he found resting in the shade was a female serval, a small African wildcat, the possession of which is illegal for private citizens in Orleans Parish, Audubon Nature Institute officials said.

Henderson's first instinct was to call the cops, nervous that the wildcat might harm children in the vicinity. But before the law arrived, he somewhat boldly tried to befriend the cat.

He took it water, then slices of American cheese, then pieces of turkey wing.

The cat lapped up the offerings, but bared her teeth and hissed when he drew near.

"I guess I got a little bit too close to his perimeter, and I kindly gave him his respect and backed off," Henderson said. He guessed that the cat's relatively calm demeanor meant it was someone's pet: "If it had been aggressive, it would have had my butt."

The official response to Henderson's 911 call was robust. A small crowd of police officers pulled up at his home in the 700 block of Jena Street, initially leery, he said, of stepping into the yard. An agent from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries came too, as did staffers from the Audubon Institute, which runs the zoo.

Henderson was shooed inside the house. Audubon's veterinarian staff tranquilized the cat with a dart gun, then captured it in a net, spokeswoman Sarah Burnette said. Late in the day, the animal was resting in the zoo's hospital as police tried to determine where it came from and whether it has an owner, legal or otherwise.

"You wouldn't just find a serval hanging around Uptown normally," Burnette said, adding that the cat is likely someone's exotic pet. But such a creature is nothing to play with, said Maria Davidson, large carnivore programs manager for the state wildlife service.

"It's a wildcat," she said. "It's not as big as a lion or a tiger, but it could certainly do damage to a person."

Servals typically feed on small animals such as frogs, birds and rabbits, although they occasionally have been seen taking larger game, such as small antelopes.

Audubon Institute officials have agreed to provide the serval a home, probably at the institute's Species Survival Center in Lower Coast Algiers, if no other option is available.

Henderson relished his brush with the wild kingdom just off Magazine Street, though he was perturbed that no one from officialdom got back to him about the cat's fate.

"They told me to go back inside because the cat, you know, might have other options," he said. "They didn't say hello, they didn't say goodbye."

Man finds African wildcat in Uptown backyard

by Coleman Warner, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday February 18, 2009, 8:08 AM

When Carl Henderson stepped into the backyard of his mother's Uptown home Tuesday at mid morning, he was checking out a neighbor's report of raccoon playing about.

He found something quite different.

Henderson encountered what looked like a small cheetah, 22 pounds and lean, two feet tall in the arch of its back, a long tail, with black and brown spots. An intimidating, lovely feline in an unlikely spot.

"The spots and design on it, the natural nature thing," the 58-year-old New Orleanian said later in the day, still flabbergasted at the mysterious find. "An artist couldn't do that. It was a sight for the eyes."

What he found resting in the shade was a female serval, a small African wildcat, the possession of which is illegal for private citizens in Orleans Parish, Audubon Nature Institute officials said.

Henderson's first instinct was to call the cops, nervous that the wildcat might harm children in the vicinity. But before the law arrived, he somewhat boldly tried to befriend the cat.

He took it water, then slices of American cheese, then pieces of turkey wing.

The cat lapped up the offerings, but bared her teeth and hissed when he drew near.
"I guess I got a little bit too close to his perimeter, and I kindly gave him his respect and backed off," Henderson said. He guessed that the cat's relatively calm demeanor meant it was someone's pet: "If it had been aggressive, it would have had my butt."

The official response to Henderson's 911 call was robust. A small crowd of police officers pulled up at his home in the 700 block of Jena Street, initially leery, he said, of stepping into the yard. An agent from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries came too, as did staffers from the Audubon Institute, which runs the zoo.

Henderson was shooed inside the house. Audubon's veterinarian staff tranquilized the cat with a dart gun, then captured it in a net, spokeswoman Sarah Burnette said. Late in the day, the animal was resting in the zoo's hospital as police tried to determine where it came from and whether it has an owner, legal or otherwise.

"You wouldn't just find a serval hanging around Uptown normally," Burnette said, adding that the cat is likely someone's exotic pet. But such a creature is nothing to play with, said Maria Davidson, large carnivore programs manager for the state wildlife service.

"It's a wildcat," she said. "It's not as big as a lion or a tiger, but it could certainly do damage to a person."

Servals typically feed on small animals such as frogs, birds and rabbits, although they occasionally have been seen taking larger game, such as small antelopes.

Audubon Institute officials have agreed to provide the serval a home, probably at the institute's Species Survival Center in Lower Coast Algiers, if no other option is available.

Henderson relished his brush with the wild kingdom just off Magazine Street, though he was perturbed that no one from officialdom got back to him about the cat's fate.
"They told me to go back inside because the cat, you know, might have other options," he said. "They didn't say hello, they didn't say goodbye."
. . . . . . .
Coleman Warner can be reached at cwarner@timespicayu ne.com or 504.826.3311.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/feral_cat_tranquilized_in_jena.html