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| Liger - A lion-tiger mule | |
By j sumant in Featured Monday, February 18, 2008 @ 9:05 PM |  |  The liger is a cross (a hybrid) between a male lion and a female tiger. It has also been known as a lion-tiger mule.The term "mule" (Latin mulus) was formerly applied to the offspring of any two creatures of different species – in modern usage, a "hybrid".
A liger looks like a giant lion with diffused stripes. Some male ligers grow sparse manes. Like tigers, but unlike lions, ligers enjoy swimming. Unlike other hybrids, female ligers can reproduce.
A cross between a male tiger and a female lion is called a tigon. This would have referred to the Gir Forest in India where the ranges of Asiatic Lions and Bengal Tigers overlap. Under exceptional circumstances it has been known for a tiger to be forced into ranges inhabited by the Asian lion, Panthera leo persica, which is the same genus as the tiger. Reports have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild and producing offspring known as ligers.
I take this opportunity to share few more information about Panthera species.
There are a number of hybrids of Panthera species. Panthera is a genus of the family Felidae (the cats), which contains four well-known living species: the tiger, lion, leopard, and jaguar. The genus comprises about half of the big cats. One meaning of the word panther is to designate cats of this family. Only these four cat species have the anatomical changes enabling them to roar - the incomplete ossification of the hyoid bone. A hybrid between male and female of Panthera species are known as :
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Female |
Lion |
Tiger |
Jaguar |
Leopard |
| Male |
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| Lion |
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Lion |
Liger |
Liguar |
Liard |
| Tiger |
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Tigon |
Tiger |
Tiguar |
Tigard |
| Jaguar |
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Jaglion |
Jaguatiger |
Jaguar |
Jagulep |
| Leopard |
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Leopon |
Leotig |
Lepjag |
Leopard |
Read on... More about Liger "Hercules"...
 The 10ft Liger who's still growing...
He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic Creation from Hollywood . But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood - As he proves every time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar. Part lion, part Tiger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one, standing 10ft tall on his Back legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is The largest of all the cat species. On a typical day he will devour 20lb of meat, usually beef or Chicken, and is capable of eating 100lb at a single setting. At just three Years old, Hercules already weighs half a ton.
He is the accidental result of two enormous big cats living close Together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already dwarfs both his parents.
"Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large Enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of The lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then loo and behold We had a liger."
50mph runner... Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard Of among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for Lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one Another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia . But Incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in Captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II.
Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world And a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion Mother. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical Characteristics of the tiger.
I would really love to meet such kind of species in reality. What about you????? |
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