Ligers

[su-47]

I just watched a program on national geographic about big cats, and towards the end they showed the ultimate big cat, a liger. This was the frst time i ever heard of them, so i decided to check it up. its prettyu fascinating and i thought i'd share it with everyone here:

Ligers are the ofsprings of male lions and female tigers (tigresses). They are not naturally born in the wild, but usually bred in captivity. Ligers have been known to exist since the 19th century, and there are documents of Ligers being shown to William IV.

Ligers grow to abnormally large sizes, more than twice the size of an average lion or tiger, making them the largest cats of all. Two male ligers, named Sinbad and Hercules, weigh over 1100 pounds each.

Offspring of male tigers and female lions are known as tigons, but they are not as large as their liger cousins.

Male ligers are sterile, but females are fertile. offsprings of female ligers bred with male lions and tigers are known as li-ligers and ti-ligers respectively.

Some pictures of ligers:

in the first pic, the liger Sinbad is standing on his hind legs to grab a piece of meat. In the last pic, Sinbad is lying next to a male Bengal Tiger

for more information visit Liger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[doobie86]

man, I could crush that guy with my pinky.

 

[su-47]

more like his pinky (with 3 inch claws) will rip your heart out!

 

[Moin91]

Amazing.......thanks for sharing with us....

 

[JK!]

But as the male and females cannot breed together they are not considered to be a new species.

(YAY my A level Biology Lessons have finally paid off!!!)

 

[su-47]

But as the male and females cannot breed together they are not considered to be a new species.

(YAY my A level Biology Lessons have finally paid off!!!)

i am not even sure if ligers can be classified as a new species. lions and tigers have so much in common in terms of anatomy. i think crossing lions and tigers is probably in the same league as crossing a German Shepherd and a Labrador Retriever. The puppies won't be either German shepherd or Labradors, but something they are not a new species either.

The fact that male ligers a re sterile itslef shows that liger were never meant to be born naturally.