Adventurous Safari: The Liger – More Than Just A Big Stripy Lion

What happens when you cross a lion with a tiger? No, this isn’t a joke and it doesn’t involve scientists puzzling away mixing DNA in test tubes, the simple answer is: A Liger. A cross between a male lion and a female tiger, the liger is the largest cat in the word and resembles a tiger with diffused stripes. Go to overland tours for more information.

In the past uncommon circumstances where tigers were forced into ranges belonging to Asiatic lions, there were rare reports of tigresses mating with lions in the wild. Such situations are now exceedingly rare as present-day territories of the two animals no longer combine and so ligers are a hard-to-find cat.

The known existence of ligers dates back the the early 19th century in Asia with an engraving by Etienne Geoggrey Saint-Hilaire of liger cubs born in 1824 and examples of the big cat were depicted in other paintings and writings since. 1935 saw the birth of four ligers in a South African zoo, three of which lived to 1953 with a male standing a foot and a half taller than a full grown male lion and weighing a staggering 750 lb.

If you bred a lion and tiger you’d be unlikely to expect a stroppy tabby cat but the the size of the liger is something special indeed. Imprinted genes – not expressed on the parent but playing a part in hybrid growth – mean that the young often grow larger than what is typical for either parent breed. A living example of the size of the liger can be found at Jungle Island where the largest non-obese liger spends his days. The Book of World Records lists him as the largest car and Hercules is believed to weigh over 1,100 lbs and is over twice the size of a male lion or tiger. His size has made him a star outside of Jungle Island and he has appeared on many an American TV show. Refer to african adventure tours for more information.

It’s not just the size of their parent breeds that the ligers inherit and exceed; the big cat temperament also runs through their genes. Ligers are very aggressive cats and extremely hard to work with. Along with the stripes, the liger also carries a few of the tiger-like characteristics of the parent breed and, in strong contrast to the nature lions, love water.

When ligers and tigons – the product of a male tiger and female lion, though smaller than ligers – have been mentioned, the common belief was that the cat is sterile. While it is true that male ligers are sterile the females can usually reproduce. Accordingly, a male and female liger cannot breed together. It’s when a female liger breeds that the names get a bit strange; if she breeds with a male tiger the offspring is a ti-liger whereas the young from a pairing with a male lion are li-ligers.

The breeding of ligers is frowned upon by many, as it is mixing two different species, and accredited members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums never have, nor will, bred ligers. Some zoos display these strange yet beautiful animals though as they acknowledge that ligers have occurred by accident. It is perhaps this refusal to deliberately breed them that makes ligers extremely rare, even more so than tigons. So while it is unlikely that you will see one, at least you’ll know that it’s more that just an over-sized lion with stripes. Visit overland safari tours for further information.

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