Dearest Motty: The World’s Only Hybrid Elephant
On the rarest of occasions there comes into existence a specific organism that can truly be said to be genetically one-of-a-kind, possessing a unique attribute or history that we can say with near confidence has never occurred before and might never again. All the more surprising is when this occurs despite what we had assumed to be impossible. This is the story of a wee elephant like none other, who stunned the zoological community with his mere existence. Chester Zoo in England, founded in 1931, has long been called one of the greatest zoological gardens on Earth, with an impressive plethora of exhibits and a world-class conservation program. Dozens of elephants have called the zoo home over the decades since the opening of the elephant exhibit in 1941. One of these was Motty, the only known hybrid being an Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) and an African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta Africana). As the two species are in different genera, it was presumed that the two could never procrea