Liger Born in Siberian Zoo

Palomar · 2005-02-18 08:47:29

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/12/06/liger.shtml]Now that's a cat

*My husband told me about this story; he'd seen it on TV news. I figured kitty was the result of another science experiment. Nope. Mom's a Bengalese tiger and Pop's an African lion. The call of nature attracted them and...

Not sure I've ever heard of a tiger and lion mating and producing offspring successfully.

I saw a TV news segment; this cat's head is at least 4 times larger than that of the adult man beside it (zoo handler) -- and the cat's not yet fully grown.

Mother Nature has her ways, teehee.

--Cindy

Trebuchet · 2005-02-18 16:06:43

Actually, such hybrids are not unknown, and, in fact, happen semifrequently in zoos. They don't happen in the wild because of non-overlap between tiger and lion territories. Such hybrids are generally sterile (think of the liger as a feline mule) and display their massive size because of synergistic effects - in lions, female lions suppress the size/growth of the cub in vitro, whereas male lions provide promoter genes for growth (or something like that, I'm not a biologist). In tigers its the other way around. So male lions and female tigers have really *big* cubs, which grow into really *big* felines. If the parents were the other way around, creating a hybrid called a tigon, it would be smaller than the parent species.

Mad Grad Student · 2005-02-18 22:26:19

Actually, such hybrids are not unknown, and, in fact, happen semifrequently in zoos. They don't happen in the wild because of non-overlap between tiger and lion territories. Such hybrids are generally sterile (think of the liger as a feline mule) and display their massive size because of synergistic effects - in lions, female lions suppress the size/growth of the cub in vitro, whereas male lions provide promoter genes for growth (or something like that, I'm not a biologist). In tigers its the other way around. So male lions and female tigers have really *big* cubs, which grow into really *big* felines. If the parents were the other way around, creating a hybrid called a tigon, it would be smaller than the parent species.

Heh heh, I guess Napoleon (Dynamite) was right after all. If this is real it's pretty wild, but that photo in the article looked very much like a photoshop job. They really shouldn't include weirdo photos like that when we're talking about serious business here. :;):

The liger's pretty much my favorite animal. It's kind of like a lion and a tiger mixed, bred for magic abilities.

-Napoleon Dynamite

Trebuchet · 2005-02-19 01:49:34

Real ligers do look like that, the male ones, anyways - they have a raggy version of the lion's mane, and those paler tripes with blotches towards the tail.

Here, look at this liger in the US: http://www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/liger.htm]LIGER

Palomar · 2005-02-19 07:09:39

Trebuchet: Such hybrids are generally sterile (think of the liger as a feline mule)

*I'd wondered about that. Thanks.

Real ligers do look like that, the male ones, anyways - they have a raggy version of the lion's mane, and those paler tripes with blotches towards the tail.
Here, look at this liger in the US: http://www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/liger.htm]LIGER

As for Hobbs, nice pic. Looks very much like the Siberian liger.

--Cindy

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#1 2005-02-18 08:47:29

Re: Liger Born in Siberian Zoo

#2 2005-02-18 16:06:43

Re: Liger Born in Siberian Zoo

#3 2005-02-18 22:26:19

Re: Liger Born in Siberian Zoo

#4 2005-02-19 01:49:34

Re: Liger Born in Siberian Zoo

#5 2005-02-19 07:09:39

Re: Liger Born in Siberian Zoo

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