Hybrid animals could be looked at as a form of animal kingdom creativity. Why have two separate animals when you could mix two and create one? With artistic vision and a splash of linguistic license, real life animal cross-breeding has resulting in the fantastic sounding ‘liger’, a cross between a lion and tiger, and the ‘yakalo’, a yak/buffalo combo.
Today, I started thinking about the hybrids I’d like to see. Maybe the ‘snish’, that’s a snake and a fish, or the ‘Seatle’, a seagull and beetle. Designer James Bourne had a similar idea when he set a project for school children to image a combination of their two favourite animals. Picking the most imaginative combinations he drew them, and then Mouldy Loaf put them on a childrens t-shirt. If you get one of these shirts you can spend hours trying to work out the new hybrid animals. I can spot a ‘CrocaBee’ (crocodile/bumblebee), and I think there might be a ‘Tortoose’ (tortoise/goose) there too, but some of them are too bizarre to decipher. In fact, I think one of them might be a plant. Just think, the children who had these animal visions are going to be the scientists of the future, so lock up your pets.
Animal Madness
But where is the almighty Liger? (lion + tiger)