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Liger

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Liger
The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a female tiger. It is denoted scientifically as Panthera tigris × Panthera leo.[1] A liger resembles a lion with diffused stripes. They are the largest cats in the world, although the Siberian Tiger is the largest pure sub-species. Like tigers, but unlike lions, ligers enjoy swimming. A similar hybrid, the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion is called a tigon.

Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild.[2] Under exceptional circumstances it has been known for a tiger to be forced into ranges inhabited by the Asiatic Lion, Panthera leo persica; however, this combination of species in the wild is considered highly unlikely.[3] The present-day ranges of wild lions and tigers no longer overlap.[4]

History

Documentation of ligers dates to at least the early 19th century in Europe. A painting of two liger cubs was made by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772−1844). In 1825, G.B. Whittaker made an engraving of liger cubs born in 1824. The parents and their three liger offspring are also depicted with their trainer in a 19th Century painting in the naive style.

Two liger cubs born in 1837 were exhibited to William IV and to his successor Victoria. On 14 December 1900 and on 31 May 1901, Carl Hagenbeck wrote to zoologist James Cossar Ewart with details and photographs of ligers born at the Hagenpark in Hamburg in 1897.

In Animal Life and the World of Nature (1902–1903), A.H. Bryden described Hagenbeck's "lion-tiger" hybrids:
It has remained for one of the most enterprising collectors and naturalists of our time, Mr Carl Hagenbeck, not only to breed, but to bring successfully to a healthy maturity, specimens of this rare alliance between those two great and formidable felidae, the lion and tiger. The illustrations will indicate sufficiently how fortunate Mr Hagenbeck has been in his efforts to produce these hybrids. The oldest and biggest of the animals shown is a hybrid born on the 11th May, 1897. This fine beast, now more than five years old, equals and even excels in his proportions a well-grown lion, measuring as he does from nose tip to tail 10 ft 2 inches in length, and standing only three inches less than 4 ft at the shoulder. A good big lion will weigh about 400 lb [...] the hybrid in question, weighing as it does no less than 467 lb, is certainly the superior of the most well-grown lions, whether wild-bred or born in a menagerie. This animal shows faint striping and mottling, and, in its characteristics, exhibits strong traces of both its parents. It has a somewhat lion-like head, and the tail is more like that of a lion than of a tiger. On the other hand, it has little or no trace of mane. It is a huge and very powerful beast.''[5]


In 1935, four ligers from two litters were reared in the Zoological Gardens of Bloemfontein, South Africa. Three of them, a male and two females, were still living in 1953. The male weighed 750 lb. and stood a foot and a half taller than a full grown male lion at the shoulder.

Although ligers are more commonly found than tigons today, in At Home In The Zoo (1961), Gerald Iles wrote "For the record I must say that I have never seen a liger, a hybrid obtained by crossing a lion with a tigress. They seem to be even rarer than tigons."[6]

Size and growth

Imprinted genes may be a factor contributing to liger size.[7] These are genes that may or may not be expressed depending on the parent they are inherited from, and that occasionally play a role in issues of hybrid growth. For example, in some mice species crosses, genes that are expressed only when maternally-inherited cause the young to grow larger than is typical for either parent species. This growth is not seen in the paternal species, as such genes are normally "counteracted" by genes inherited from the female of the appropriate species.[8]

The tiger produces a hormone that sets the fetal liger on a pattern of growth that does not end throughout its life. The hormonal hypothesis is that the cause of the male liger's growth is its sterility — essentially, the male liger remains in the pre-pubertal growth phase. This is not upheld by behavioural evidence - despite being sterile, many male ligers become sexually mature and mate with females. Male ligers also have the same levels of testosterone ng/dl on average as an adult male lion. In addition, female ligers also attain great size, weighing approximately 700 lb (320 kg) and reaching 10 feet (3.05 m) long on average, and are often fertile.

Enlarge picture
Hercules the liger and his trainer

Hercules

Jungle Island in Miami is home to a liger named Hercules, the largest non-obese liger, said to weigh over 900 lbs, [9] over twice the size of a male lion. Hercules was also featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, Inside Edition and in a Maxim magazine article in 2005, when he was only 3 years old and already weighed 408 kg (900 lb) at the time. The liger is the largest animal in the cat family (feline family Felidae);[10][11] and Hercules was in the Book of World Records as the largest cat. Hercules seems completely healthy and is expected to live a long life. The cat's breeding is said to be a complete accident.

Longevity

Shasta, a ligress (female liger) was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on May 14th, 1948 and died in 1972 at age 24. The 1973 Guinness world records reported an 18-year-old, 798-kg (1756 lb) male liger living at Bloemfontein zoological gardens, South Africa in 1888. Valley of the Kings animal sanctuary in Wisconsin has a 21-year-old male liger named Nook who weighs 550 kg (1210 lb), and is still living as of January 2007. [1] .

Fertility

While male ligers are sterile, female ligers are fertile, and they can reproduce. Because only female ligers and tigons are fertile, a liger cannot reproduce with a tigon.

If a liger were to reproduce with a tiger, it would be called a ti-liger, and if it were to reproduce with a lion, it would be called a li-liger. The fertility of hybrid big cat females is well-documented across a number of different hybrids. This is in accordance with Haldane's rule: in hybrids of animals whose gender is determined by sex chromosomes, if one gender is absent, rare or sterile, it is the heterogametic sex (the one with two different sex chromosomes e.g. X and Y).

According to Wild Cats of the World (1975) by C. A. W. Guggisberg, ligers and tigons were long thought to be sterile: In 1943, however, a fifteen-year-old hybrid between a lion and an 'Island' tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, although of delicate health, was raised to adulthood.[12]

Colors

Ligers have a tiger-like striping pattern on a lion-like tawny background. In addition they may inherit rosettes from the lion parent (lion cubs are rosetted and some adults retain faint markings). These markings may be black, dark brown or sandy. The background color may be correspondingly tawny, sandy or golden. In common with tigers, their underparts are pale. The actual pattern and color depends on which subspecies the parents were and on the way in which the genes interact in the offspring.

White tigers have been crossed with lions to produce "white" (actually pale golden) ligers. In theory white tigers could be crossed with white lions to produce white, very pale or even stripeless ligers. A black liger would require both a melanistic tiger and a melanistic lion as parents. Very few melanistic tigers have ever been recorded, most being due to excessive markings (pseudo-melanism or abundism) rather than true melanism. No reports of black lions have ever been substantiated. A hypothetical procedure to breed black ligers is explained . The blue or Maltese Tiger is now unlikely to exist, making grey or blue ligers an impossibility. It is not impossible for a liger to be white, but it is very rare.

Zoo policies

According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, accredited zoos frown on the practice of mixing two different species and have never bred ligers. Keeping the two species separate has always been standard procedure.[13] However they have admitted that ligers have occurred by accident. Several AZA zoos are reported to have ligers.

Ligers in popular culture

In the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite, the title character draws a picture of a liger. Describing the hybrid feline as "pretty much my favorite animal," he asserts that the liger has been "bred for its skills in magic."

See also

References

1. ^ A. A. Milne (Dec 1927). "Tiggers Can't Climb Trees". The London Magazine 59 (206). 
2. ^ (1980) in Nicholas Courtney, ed.: The Tiger, Symbol of Freedom. London: Quartet Books. ISBN 0704322455. 
3. ^ Ronald Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo
4. ^ Valmik Thapar: Im Land des Tigers. Vgs Verlagsges. (1998). ISBN 3802513703
5. ^ Bryden, A.H. (contributor). "Animal Life and the World of Nature" (1902-1903, bound partwork).
6. ^ Iles, G. At Home In The Zoo (1961).
7. ^ Growth dysplasia in hybrid big cats. Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
8. ^ Howard Hughes Medical Institute (30 April, 2000). HHMI News: Gene Tug-of-War Leads to Distinct Species. Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
9. ^ Sierra Safari Zoo: Liger. Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
10. ^ FoundationTV:Biggest Cat In the World. Retrieved on August 6, 2006.
11. ^ Sierra Safari Zoo:Liger. Retrieved on August 6, 2006.
12. ^ Guggisberg, C. A. W. "Wild Cats of the World" (1975).
13. ^ BigCatRescue. Ligers.. Retrieved on October 4, 2006.

Further reading

External links

This article incorporates text from messybeast.com, which is released under the GFDL.
hybrid has two meanings.[1]

The first meaning is the result of interbreeding between two animals or plants of different taxa. Hybrids between different species within the same genus are sometimes known as interspecific hybrids or crosses.
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For the industrial-metal band, see .


A crossbreed or crossbred is a hybrid animal of two purebred parents. Crossbreed may also refer to a domestic animal where the breed status of only one parent or grandparent is known.
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P. leo

Binomial name
Panthera leo
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Distribution of lions in Africa


Synonyms
Felis leo
(Linnaeus, 1758)

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P. tigris

Binomial name
Panthera tigris
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Historical distribution of tigers (pale yellow) and 2006 (green).

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P. tigris

Subspecies: P. tigris altaica

Trinomial name
Panthera tigris altaica
Temminck, 1884


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Male (♂) refers to the sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilisation.
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Female (♀) is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces ova (egg cells). The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon is produced by the male.
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Tigon or Tigron is a hybrid cross between a female lion and a male tiger. The tigon is not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the liger; however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tigons were more common than ligers.
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P. l. persica

Trinomial name
Panthera leo persica
Meyer, 1826

Current distribution of the Asiatic Lion in the wild


Synonyms
Leo leo goojratensis (India)

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In biology, the range or distribution of a species is the geographical area within which that species can be found.

The term is often qualified:
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Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (April 15,1772 - June 19, 1844) was a French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition". He was a colleague of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and expanded and defended Lamarck's evolutionary theories.
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William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death.
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Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death on 22 January 1901.
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December 14 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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Year 1900 (MCM
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Tigon or Tigron is a hybrid cross between a female lion and a male tiger. The tigon is not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the liger; however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tigons were more common than ligers.
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Genomic imprinting is a genetic phenomenon by which certain genes are expressed in a parent of origin-specific manner. Forms of genomic imprinting have been demonstrated in insects, mammals and flowering plants.
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Jungle Island is an animal theme park in the city of Miami, Florida. It was originally Parrot Jungle until it moved from the village of Pinecrest to its present location on Watson Island in the city of Miami and renamed as Parrot Jungle Island; the original is still open as
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Good Morning America is a weekday morning news show that is broadcast on the ABC television network. The show was adapted from The Morning Exchange, a morning show created by and airing on the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio, and was launched nationally as
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Anderson Cooper 360° (commonly shortened to either AC-360 or 360 and rarely spoken with the word "degrees", despite the use of the degree symbol in the title) is a two-hour television news show on CNN, the first hour always broadcast live, hosted by
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Inside Edition is a syndicated news program, on the air since January 9, 1989. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles Entertainment Tonight or The Insider.
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Maxim in 2007.]] Mary Elizabeth Winstead on the cover of Maxim in 2007.
Editor-in-chief Jim Kaminsky (September, 2007 - present)

Categories Men's
Frequency Monthly

Publisher Dennis Publishing, Inc.
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Felidae
G. Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Subfamilies

Felinae
Pantherinae
†Machairodontinae
Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Salt Lake City, Utah
Downtown Salt Lake City
Nickname: Crossroads of the West, SLC
Location of Salt Lake City in Salt Lake County, Utah
Coordinates:
Country United States
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May 14 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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