What's a Liger?
by Lorrie Davids(430)
What do you get when you mix a male Lion and a female tiger? A liger. That is true. A liger looks kind of like a lion, but with spotty stripes, or stripes that are interrupted. The most famous of ligers is Hercules, supposedly weighing in at half a ton. According to an email circulating, Hercules was an accident; the result of lions and tigers both living in the same large enclosure at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species in Miami, Florida. This new hybrid would not happen in the wild as lions and tigers are found on different continents.
What happens if the male is a tiger and the female a lion? The result is a tigon. The Web Site liger.org goes on to say and tiger and a liger results in a ti-liger and a tiger mated with a female tiger produces a ti-tigon. Are you confused yet?
Some say the breeding of lions with tigers is an unscrupulous practice with no value to the animal. Where you stand on that issue makes little difference. Now that this hybrid has been discovered, there will be many more on the earth. Other than the fact that these are feral and powerful animals, I guess it isn't much different than other crossbreeds. After all, now we have labradoodles! What you do know about ligers? Do you have an opinion about their breeding? Please leave your views in a comment below.
Article submitted Thursday, January 21, 2010 & read 267 times.
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» left by Marijo Phelps from mountain meadow CO (224 days 4 hours ago.)
Lorrie - this is hard to believe but I know it is true - I have seen a bob cat crossed (by the bob cat's choice not man's) with a house cat and it was one incredible animal and you'd best not try to get anywhere near it's mistress (human owner). I delivered tupperware to her and had to be really careful - the bob cat-cat was huge and quite the watch dog.... Gorgeous though. MarijoRespond to this comment
» left by Lorrie Davids(430)
Wow! Marijo! I can't even imagine that! Ha - a bob cat-cat - love it! I wonder what other things we'd read about if we went looking on the Internet. As always, thanks for reading and commenting. You are an encourager and a blessing!
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