Mythological Animal Hybrids

Thinking about sacred animals and animal worship I looked into ancient mythical beasts that where based around animals. I was drawn to the animal hybrids that where combinations of all different kinds of animals.

Ammit - Ancient Egyptian - Crocodile / Lion / Hippo


Chimera - Ancient Greek - Lion / Goat / Snake



Navagunjara - Hindu - Mixture of all sorts of animals, Rooster / Peacock / Bull / Serpent


Baku - Japanese - Elephant / Rhino / Tiger / Bear


Qilin - Chinese - Dragon / Deer / Fish


I like the way the animals are combined and how they take different features like limbs or details like feathers and hooves and merge them together into new creatures. I thought it could be interesting to apply some of these ideas to my illustrations, maybe creating my own hybrid creatures to represent the different animal totems.