LIGERS - THE BIG CATS

A liger is the offspring of a lion and a tigress. It is bigger than either parent, 10 - 12 ft in length - making it the biggest hybrid cat and, for many people, the most fascinating. Ligers vary in appearance depending on how the genes interact and on which subspecies of lion and tiger are breed together. In general, males grow sparse leonine manes and the facial ruff of a tiger. Males and females have spotted bellies and a striped back. They roar like lions and "chuff" like tigers. The females exhibit conflicting needs for lioness-like sisterhood and tigress-like solitude.

In Nicholas Courtney's (editor) book "The Tiger, Symbol Of Freedom", it stated "Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild." "Under exceptional circumstances it has been known for a tiger to be forced into ranges inhabited by the Asian lion, Panthera leo persica, which is the same genus as the tiger. Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild and producing offspring known as ligers. When a tiger and a lioness mate the cub is called a tigron." It is assumed that Milne refers to the Gir Forest where both species are found. Milne also wrote that "lions and tigers have cross breed in captivity for centuries (correct), and that the offspring are always sterile (correct with regard to male offspring only)".

Cuvier reported a litter of three lion-tiger "mules" born in October 1824 in England to an African lion and an Asiatic tigress. The parents were owned by Mr Atkins, an itinerant exhibitor and animal dealer. They shared a den and were observed to mate frequently during the previous July. The cubs were born at Windsor and were shown to his Majesty. They were taken from the tigress shortly after birth and fostered onto bitches and a goat. Cuvier presented an engraving of 2 of the 3 the cubs at 3 months old and observed that they would probably reach maturity. He described them as being dirty-yellow or "blanket-colour" (i.e. camel colour) with darker tiger-like stripes on the body and spots on the head and on parts of the body. They had lion-like heads. These appear to be the first recorded ligers.

LIGERS AND TIGONS BORN NATURALLY?

As various debates exists regarding the orgin of this species and there breed. It is believed to be breeded in invitro conditions or lab conditions. Do you know that Ligers and Tigons are born without any genetic engineering ? In Singapore, which is known as lion country, they detected that in the lion and tiger conservation, there are some lions and tigers mating each other. The results are Ligers and Tigons were born...and you should know this, now Ligers are the biggest cat in the world!!

This is the information that I got... Long ago, outside the old city of Singapore, which was considered to be the city of Lions, there was reported to be giant brown beasts. This was before the Asiatic lion was reduced to such low numbers that their are now less than 200 left in the Gir forest. This huge animal might just be an explanation for this myth, for he is neither a lion nor a tiger, but he is about the size of both of them combined. The liger is the world's largest big cat. An average male liger weighs over 900 pounds and standing almost 12 feet tall. The reason that they are called a liger is because the father was a lion and the mother was a tiger. If the situation was reversed and the mother was a lion and the father was a tiger, he would be called a tigon, and would be a dwarf instead of a giant. A fully grown tigon is usually less that 350lbs. Ligers are not sterile, and they can reproduce. If a liger were to reproduce with a tiger, it would be called a titi, and if it were to reproduce with a lion, it would be call a lili. Ligers are not something we planned on having. We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures. We had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl. Low and behold, she had giant brown babies, and we knew we had ourselves some ligers. Our ligers were raised on a baby bottle, and they still enjoy getting them as treats. They are not tame from these activities, they are trained to behave. They will still bite or even kill someone given the right set of circumstances. Our liger could easily eat a hundred pound of food in a sitting but they tends to gain a little extra weight so we feed them about 25 pound of food a night. People often ask what our big cats eat. They love to eat something called, King Lion diet, which is made basically by taking a horse, a cow, a couple of pigs and a flock of chickens and putting them into a blender on high with all they parts and pieces. This ends up looking like a raw bloody meatloaf. They also enjoy restaurant quality chicken thigh quarters and chunk beef

Though lions and tigers would rarely, if ever, mate in the wild, such encounters have occasionally happened in captivity. The first liger cubs known to exist were born in 1823 in England; the cubs' parents shared a den at an exhibit and frequently mated. Today, the breed can be found in numerous zoos and animal sanctuaries throughout the world.

The liger is generally bigger than either a lion or a tiger; in some cases, it can be twice as large as a lion. The liger is the largest of any cat breed, and has a unique coat that is gold like a lion's, but striped, like a tiger's. While the male animal is known to be sterile, females are able to reproduce with lions or with tigers.

Tippi Hedren, a former actress, now runs an animal sanctuary where a liger is kept. She claims that the liger has inherited the best attributes of both lions and tigers. Like tigers, the liger enjoys being immersed in water; like lions, they are very sociable animals.

Most ligers live in animal sanctuaries like Hedren's; accredited zoos do not approve of intentionally breeding lions and tigers together, though several accidental offspring have been born at zoos around the world. Ligers have a propensity for health problems; out of 24 cubs born at a wildlife park, three have had neurological problems.

The liger became a popular culture reference in 2004, when the title character in the film Napoleon Dynamite called the liger his favorite animal. Since that time, many people have gone to zoos and animal sanctuaries around the world to see a liger firsthand. Australia's Canberra Zoo had a liger on display for several years, but the animal died in 2006. However, ligers can still be found at Wild Animal Safari in Georgia, Tippi Hedren's Shambala Preserve in California, and Spirit of the Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in South Dakota.

Offspring can also result from a female lion and a male tiger; this cross breed is known as a tigon, and is significantly smaller than the liger

Click for details: http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hyb-liger.htm

REF:

Historical accounts of ligers and tigons (chronological order): CJ Cornish et al (undated), R De Davison (1863), K Ackermann (1898), A Rörig (1903), Deutshe Landwirtshaftliche Presse (1904), Boettger (1906), T Noack (1908), A Sokolowsky (1909), H Przibram (1910), SS Flower (1929), L Reisinger (1929), Sir PC Mitchell (1930), H Heck (1932), RI Pocock (1935), CWG Eifrig (1937), WA Craft (1938), L Heck (1941), VG Stefko and VP Narskii (1946), B E—(1946), American Fur Breeder (1948), Illustrated (1948), H Pilcher (1948), B Grzimek (1949), A Urbain and J Rinjard (1950), P Leyhausen (1950), C Hagenbeck (1951), O Antonius (1951), H Petzsch (1951, 1956), M Burton (1952), A Kemner (1953)<>