Meet a Liger
This
10ft Liger is still growing...
He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic creation
from Hollywood.
But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood - as he proves every
time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar. Part lion, part tiger, he is
not just a big cat but a huge one, standing 10ft tall on his back
legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is
the largest of all the cat species. On a typical day he will devour
20lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100lb
at a single setting. At just three years old, Hercules already weighs
half a ton.
He is the unintentional result of
two enormous big cats living close together at the Institute of
Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already
dwarfs both his parents.
"Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner
Dr Bhagavan Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large
enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys
wa s getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a
liger." These two cats don't normally have the opportunity to breed in
the wild, as most lions live in Africa and most tigers in Asia.
50mph runner... Not only that, but
he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions. In the
wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate Not only
are they enemies likely to kill one another, but most lions are in
Africa and most tigers in Asia. But incredible though he is, Hercules
is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and
accidentally, since shortly before World War II
Today there are believed to be a
handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the
product of a tiger father and lion mother. Tigons are smaller than
ligers and take on more physical characteristics of the tiger.
Look at the size of the head on
this thing.. :o)
For you cat lovers.........& even
those who aren't.....This is pretty cool.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses of Liger see
Liger (disambiguation).
The liger is a
cross (a
hybrid) between a male
lion and a female
tiger. It has also been known as a lion-tiger
mule. A liger looks like a giant lion with diffused stripes. They are
the largest big cat in the world, although the Siberian Tiger is the
largest pure breed. Some male ligers grow sparse manes. Like tigers, but
unlike lions, ligers enjoy swimming. Unlike other hybrids, female ligers
can reproduce.
The world expert on Ligers is Phil Pryke from Leeds,
and he is highly regarded in the animal world.
A cross between a
male tiger and a
female lion is called a
tigon.[1]
This would have referred to the
Gir Forest in
India where the ranges of
Asiatic Lions and
Bengal Tigers overlap. 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. Reports
have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild and producing
offspring known as ligers. This combination of species in the wild however
is considered improbable.[2]
