Discover These 7 Animals That Were Created by Humans

Human beings have fought against the tides of nature more often than not. It is especially true for the recent era, where humans have missed no chance to experiment with nature, and even tamper with it.

Human created animals are great examples of the human race’s mischievous adventures with nature. Over the decades, the human race has worked notoriously to create several new genetically modified animal species. 

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Many of these creations have been driven by hopes of commercial exploitation. While some experiments became successful, many others proved to be major disasters. In this article, we talk about 7 interesting experiments of animals created by humans, continue reading to learn more.

Discover These 7 Animals That Were Created by Humans
Image Source: Animals | HowStuffWorks

Human Rat Hybrid 

Rats have been used for medical experiments and drug trials for several decades now. However, it was in July 2019, when Japanese scientists approved the idea of creating a human-rat hybrid. 

It was the first human-animal embryo experiment conducted in history. 

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The idea behind the experiment was to develop a technique to synthesize human organs in the body of other animals. The initial results have been controversial, but several trials for this technology are currently underway. 

Liger (Male Lion + Female Tiger)

One of the cross breedings of animals by humans has been the genetic fusion of the lion and the tiger species. 

The feature of this fusion of species is so that they may grow up to be very large in a fast period of time. They are considered to be the biggest cats in the world. 

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In fact, the largest liger on earth weighs around 410 kg. Such a species does not exist in the wild, and can be seen only under captivity where they have been bred deliberately through artificial means. 

Tigon (Male Tiger + Female Lion)

The tigons are similar to the ligers, except that in this case, a male tiger has been bred with a female lion. An interesting thing here is that this crossed species receives a growth-inhibiting hormone from both its parents. 

As a result, it is smaller in size as compared to ligers, and even smaller than both tigers and lions. Further, tigons have more distinct tiger stripes as compared to a liger, and a liger hardly has any. Both tigons and ligers can reproduce naturally.

Freckles (Spider + Goat)

Now this one was a strange experiment, which weirdly ended up being a major commercial breakthrough. Randy Lewis, a professor of genetics attempted to infuse spider DNA into the cells of a goat. 

The first such genetically modified species was a goat named Freckles. However, something very interesting occurred. The goat, Freckles, started producing spider silk in her milk. 

This silk was found to be many times tougher and of superior quality as compared to the silk produced by spiders. Today, this species has great commercial value and is exploited for its silk-containing milk.  

Beefalo (Buffalo + Cow)

Thanks to their commercial significance, this one (also known as cattalo) is a rather well known genetically crossed species. In fact, they have been around since the 1800s. This species was created by cross-breeding the buffalo and cow genes. 

The species that it produces was found to be much more active and also ecologically sustainable as it grazed less. 

Today, it is believed that almost all buffalo species have been contaminated by cow genes, and only four wild buffalo herds are left which are untouched. 

Featherless Chicken

The featherless chicken is yet another animal created by humans for commercial benefits. Many scientists and animal experts see the future of poultry farming in this experiment, especially for warmer countries. 

This bare-bodied chicken species is believed to have several benefits, like fast growth, lower calories, and lesser ecological footprints. 

Human Pig

Finally, let’s finish our list off with yet another human-animal fusion that has been attempted by scientists. In 2017, the Salk Institute in California ran experiments to infuse the DNA of humans into pigs to help cultivate human organs. 

The human-pig species that was created was considered to be a breakthrough to help meet the organ replacement needs of humans.  

The Bottom Line

Nature is a great mystery to humans, and we are still uncovering new ways to understand it every day. These cross-bred animals show the dangers and possibilities of tampering with nature.

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