• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Ligers and Tigons: The Results Of Big Cat Mashups That Shouldn’t Really Exist

September 26, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

The animal world is full of unusual species, from tarantulas with electric blue hair to deep sea octopuses hidden beneath the waves. While most species stick to breeding habits within their own kind, just occasionally, a set of circumstances will occur that causes a hybrid to be born.

While hybridization in the wild is rare but not impossible, zoos and breeding facilities are more likely to contain animal hybrids between species that would never come into contact with each other in the wild. 

Advertisement

In the modern wild world, lions live almost exclusively on the African continent (except for a small population in India), while tigers inhabit ranges across North Asia. Nevertheless, lions and tigers have been bred to create ligers and tigons that display some pretty interesting features of each parent. 

However, these species have either been bred accidentally or are part of attracting tourists and money-making schemes, like those made famous by the documentary series Tiger King. 

A liger is the hybrid between a male lion and a female tiger, whereas a tigon is the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion. Ligers typically possess features of both lions and tigers, but can be larger than both of their parents and are prone to gigantism. It’s been suggested that this could be because the growth-limiting genes are absent within the hybrid, as they are not passed down from the parents to these offspring. 

“With hybrids there’s a much greater chance of the genetics being messed up,” said Luke Hunter, who heads the wild cat conservation organization Panthera, speaking to National Geographic.

Advertisement

While most forms of hybrids are typically sterile, female ligers have been known to be bred with male lions producing a third animal known as a liliger. Many animal rights groups strongly suggest that the practice of breeding these hybrids is unethical and inhumane because of the health issues associated with the practice.

“I can think of no legit excuse for a liger or tigon to exist,” said Luke Dollar, program director for National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative. “If we want to recognize and honor big cats as they naturally occur in the wild, why would we possibly experiment in these completely unnatural and not biologically founded practices?” 

Some groups also argue that these animals take up space that could otherwise be used for the conservation of species that need it. 

As reported by Big Cat Rescue, Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota, said, “In terms of conservation, it’s so far away from anything, it’s kind of pointless to even say it’s irrelevant.”

Advertisement

Speaking of cat conservation, check out the black-footed cat – it might be a vulnerable species, but it’s far deadlier than its lion and tiger (and hybrid) cousins.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Paris ramps up security as jihadist attacks trial starts
  2. Cricket-‘Western bloc’ has let Pakistan down, board chief says
  3. Analysis-Diverse boards to pick the next Boston and Dallas Fed bank chiefs
  4. Ancient Bison Found In Permafrost Is So Well Preserved Scientists Want To Clone It

Source Link: Ligers and Tigons: The Results Of Big Cat Mashups That Shouldn’t Really Exist

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Prehistoric Humans Made Necklaces From Marine Mollusk Fossils 20,000 Years Ago
  • Zond 5: In 1968 Two Soviet Steppe Tortoises Beat Humans To Orbiting Around The Moon
  • Why Cats Adapted This Defense Mechanism From Snakes
  • Mother Orca Seen Carrying Dead Calf Once Again On Washington Coast
  • A Busy Spider Season Is Brewing: Why This Fall Could See A Boom Of Arachnid Activity
  • What Alternatives Are There To The Big Bang Model?
  • Magnetic Flip Seen Around First Photographed Black Hole Pushes “Models To The Limit”
  • Something Out Of Nothing: New Approach Mimics Matter Creation Using Superfluid Helium
  • Surströmming: Why Sweden’s Stinky Fermented Fish Smells So Bad (But People Still Eat It)
  • First-Ever Recording Of Black Hole Recoil Captured During Merger – And You Can Listen To It
  • The Moon Is Moving Away From Earth At A Rate Of About 3.8 Centimeters Per Year. Will It Ever Drift Apart?
  • As Solar Storm Hits Earth NASA Finds “The Sun Is Slowly Waking Up”
  • Plate Tectonics And CO2 On Planets Suggest Alien Civilizations “Are Probably Pretty Rare”
  • How To Watch The “Awkward” Partial Solar Eclipse This Weekend
  • World’s Oldest Pots: 20,000-Year-Old Vessels May Have Been Used For Cooking Clams Or Brewing Beer
  • “The Body Is Slowly And Continuously Heated”: 14,000-Year-Old Smoked Mummies Are World’s Oldest
  • Pizza Slices, Polaroid Pictures, And Over 300 Hats: What’s Left Behind In Yellowstone’s Hydrothermal Areas?
  • The Mathematical Paradox That Lets You Create Something From Nothing
  • Ancient Asteroid Ripped Apart In Collision Had Flowing Water
  • Flying Foxes Include The World’s Biggest Bat And The Largest Mammal Capable Of True Flight
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version