Narasimha is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu visualized as half-man and half-lion.

The day may come when we see Narasimha in our real life, because the hybrid animals are now not new in this real world. Liger, Tigon, Liliger, Cama, Wholphin, Leopon, Pumapard are few of the examples, and the list is not finished here!

Liger

The Liger is an hybrid cross between male lion and female tiger (tigress), having the head of lion and rest of the body as of tiger. It has mix characteristics of the lion and the tiger, i.e. it is sociable like lions and also enjoys swimming as tiger. Existence of the ligers are recorded in history since early 19th century in India. Some paintings and photographs of the ligers born in 1824 are available in records of zoologists.

Tigon

The Tigon is the another hybrid cross between lion and tiger, but the difference is the Tigon takes birth from male tiger and female lion (lioness). It has the head of the tiger and the rest of the body of the lion. You can see the characteristic marks of both the tiger and the lion on the body of the Tigon; i.e. stripes from father tiger and spots from mother lion.

Litigon

Litigon is the rare second generation of the hybrids from male lion and female tigon. In Alipore Zoo in India, an Asiatic Lion named Debabrata mated with a female tigon named Rudrani (born in 1971) and produced seven litigons.

Liliger

Liliger is also a rare second generation of the hybrids of first generation. It was first born at the Novosibirsk Zoo in Russia, in September 2012 from a male lion and female liger. It was named Kiara. On May 16, 2013 three more female liligers took birth from the parents of Kiara. Recently, the birth of first Liliger in the United States was announced by the Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park in Wynnewood at 6:18 am on November 29, 2013 from the male Lion named Simba and a female Liger named Akara.

The list of hybrid animals is so long now, including Cama (the hybrid cross between male Camel and female Llama recorded on January 14, 1998 in Camel Reproduction Centre in Dubai), Wholphin (the hybrid cross between male Whale and female Dolphin, first recorded at Tokyo SeaWorld), Leopon is the hybrid cross between male leopard and a lioness, first recorded at Kolhapur, India in 1910. Hybrids between Goat and Sheep, hybrids between different species of elephants and many other Mammal hybrids are now in existence.

Though, these all hybrids are from the parents with the same genus but of different species; but it raised some questions and debates, including:

1. What will be the pros and cons of these hybrids for the biological cycle, the society and for the parent species?

2. Will these artificial insemination experiments of scientists lead the birth of hybrids from the parents of different genus, i.e. Narasimha – the man and the lion?

Write us your opinion on these issues at the comment area below.

Author: Sonia Goyal