What you get when you breed jaguar and lion?

A Panthera hybrid is a crossbreed between any of four species—tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard—in captivity. Most hybrids would not be perpetuated in the wild as males are usually infertile. Mitochondrial genome research revealed that wild hybrids were also present in ancient times. The mitochondrial genomes of snow leopard and lion were more similar to each other than to other Panthera species, indicating that at some point in their history, the female progeny of male ancestors of modern snow leopards and female ancestors of modern lions interbred with male ancestors of modern snow leopards.

These two were the result of their father, a black jaguar named Diablo, and their mother, a lioness named Lola, being together. Both parents were rescued from a roadside zoo where they were raised together in hopes of them producing hybrids. The sanctuary tried separating the two but resulted in them becoming distressed. So, they placed the two together and separated them when the lioness came into the heat (they couldn’t spay or neuter them at the time), but in the end, she gave birth to two cubs; a yellow male named Tsunami and a black female named Jahzara. Unfortunately, their mom didn’t know how to care for them, so they were hand raised.

Now, this is possible because both lions and jaguars are closely related and belong to the genus Panthera, which also includes Leopards, Tigers, and Snow Leopards. Now, interestingly, while lions are more well known for crossbreeding with tigers, they are actually more closely related to leopards and jaguars (tigers are more closely related to snow leopards). What’s even more interesting is that it is believed that all cat species alive today are capable of crossbreeding with each other, biologically not physically (mostly).

However, hybrids like these two are strongly discouraged by conservationists due to them not being capable of playing in any conservation program.