1. Liger
The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and
a tigress (Panthera tigris). Thus, it has parents with the
same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar
hybrid tiglon. It is the largest of all known extantfelines.[1]
Ligers enjoy swimming, que es una característica of tigers, y son
muy sociables like lions. Ligers sólo existen in captivity debido a que
los habitats of the parental species no se superponen in the wild.
Historically, cuando el Asiatic Lion was prolific, the territories of
lions and tigers se solapan and there are legends of ligers existing in
the wild. Notably, ligers typically crecen más que either parent
species, unlike tiglons which tend to be about as large as a female
tiger.[1]
History
The history of ligers dates to at least the early 19th century in India
(Asia). In 1798, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844)
made a colour plate of the offspring of a lion and a tiger.
In 1825, G. B. Whittaker made an engraving of liger cubs born in
1824.[citation needed] The parents and their three liger offspring are also
depicted with their trainer in a 19th century painting in the naïve
style.

2. Two liger cubs born in 1837 were exhibited to King William IV and
to his successor Queen 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 Hagenbeck's
Tierpark 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 de nuestro tiempo, Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, no sólo to
breed, but para llevar con éxito to a healthy maturity, specimens of
this rare alliance entre los two great and formidable felidae, the lion
and tiger. The illustrations se indicará sufficiently como fortunate
Mr. Hagenbeck ha estado en his efforts to produce estos híbridos.
The oldest and biggest of the animals shown is a hybrid born el 11 de
mayo, 1897. This fine beast, now más de cinco years old, equals e
incluso excels in his proportions a well-grown lion, measuring como lo
hace from nose tip to tail 10 ft 2 inches in length, y de pie only three
inches menos de 4 ft at the shoulder. A buena big lion pesará cerca
de 400 lb [...] the hybrid de que se trate, weighing como lo hace no
less than 467 lb, is certainly the superior de los más-grown lions,
whether wild-criado o born in a menagerie . This animal shows faint
striping and mottling, and, in sus características, exhibits strong
traces of sus dos padres. It has a somewhat lion-like head, and the
tail is más parecido al de a lion than of a tiger. On the other hand,
it has no trace of mane. It is a huge and very powerful beast. [2]
In 1935, four ligers from two litters were reared in the Zoological
Gardens of Bloemfontein , South Africa. Three of them, a male y

3. dos females, vivían todavía en 1953. The male weighed 340 kg
(750 lb) y se puso a pie y medio (45 cm) más alto que un full grown
male lion en el hombro.
Although ligers are more commonly found than tiglons today, in At
Home In The Zoo(1961), Gerald Iles escribió: "For the record hay
que decir que I have never seen a liger, a hybrid obtained by crossing
a lion with a tigress. Ellos parecen ser even rarer que tigons." [3]
Size and growth
The liger is the largest known cat in the world.[1] Imprinted genes
may be a factor contributing to huge liger size.[4] These are genes that
may or may not be expressed on the parent they are inherited from,
and that occasionally jugar a role in issues of hybrid growth. For
example, en algunosdog breed crosses, genes that are expressed sólo
cuando maternally-inherited provocar the young to grow larger de lo
que es typical for either parent breed. This growth no se ve en the
paternal breeds, as estos genes are normally "counteracted" by genes
inherited from the female of the appropriate breed. [5]
Other big cat hybrids can reach similar sizes; the litigon, a rare
hybrid of a male lion and a female tiglon, is roughly the same size as
the liger, with a male named Cubanacan (at the Alipore Zoo in
India) reaching 363 kg (800 lb).[6]The extreme rarity of these
second-generation hybrids puede hacer que sea difficult to ascertain
whether they are larger o más pequeñas, on average, than the liger.
It is wrongly believed that ligers siguen creciendo throughout their
lives due to hormonal issues. It may be que simplemente grow

4. far más durante their growing years y tardan más en reach
their tamaño adulto. Further growth in altura de los
hombros and longitud del cuerpo is not seen in ligers más de 6 years
old, mismo que both lions and tigers. Male ligers también tienen the
same levels of testosterone on average as an adult male lion, sin
embargo, son azoospermic in accordance with Haldane's rule. In
addition, female ligers también pueden attain gran tamaño, weighing
approximately 320 kg (705 lb) and reaching 3.05 m (10 pies) de
largo on average, and son a menudo fértiles. In
contrast, pumapards (hybrids between pumas and leopards) tend to
exhibit dwarfism.
Hercules the liger and his trainer Bhagavan Antle
Hercules and Sinbad
Jungle Island, an interactive animal theme park in Miami, is home
to a liger named Hercules, the largest non-obese liger, who is
recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest
living cat on Earth, weighing over 410 kg (904 lb).[7] Hercules was
featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Anderson

5. Cooper 360, Inside Edition and in a Maximarticle in 2005, cuando
sólo tenía 3 years old y ya weighed 408.25 kg (900 lb). Hercules
is completamente saludable y is expected to live una vida larga.
The de gato breeding is said to have sido a complete accident.
Sinbad, another liger, was shown on the National Geographic
Channel. Sinbad was reported to have the exact weight of
Hercules.[citation needed]
Longevity
Shasta, a ligress (female liger) was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt
Lake Cityon 14 mayo de 1948 y died in 1972 a los 24 años. The
1973 Guinness World Records reported an 18-year-old, 798 kg
(1,759 lb) male liger de vida at Bloemfontein Zoological Gardens,
South Africa in 1888 (this is not accurate as the zoo abrió sus
puertas en 1920), (there are claims the liger was 756 lbs. y el
año was actually 1953). [citation needed] Valley of the Kings animal
sanctuary in Wisconsin had a male liger named Nook , que weighed
around 550 kg (1,213 lb), y murió in 2007, at 21 años de
edad. Hobbs, a male liger at the Sierra Safari Zoo in Reno,
Nevada, lived to casi 15 años of age antes de sucumbir a liver failure
and weighed in at 410 kilograms (900 lb).
Fertility
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 sex is determined by sex
chromosomes, if one sex is absent, rare or sterile, it is the

6. 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 tiglons were pensó durante mucho tiempo to
be sterile: in 1943, a fifteen-year-old hybrid entre un león y an
'Island' tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich
Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, though of delicate health, was
raised to adulthood.[8]
Colours
Colour plate of the offspring of a lion and tiger, Étienne Geoffroy
Saint-Hilaire
Ligers have a tiger-like striping pattern that is very faint and a
lion-like tawny background. In addition they may
inherit rosettes from the lion parent (lion cubs are rosetted
and algunos adults retain faint markings). These markings pueden be
black,marrón oscuro o sandy. The background color puede be
correspondingly tawny, sandy o dorado. In common with
tigers, sus underparts are pale. The actual pattern and color depende
de la subspecies de los padres were and sobre cómo the genes interact
in the offspring.

7. White tigershave been crossed with lions to produce "blanco" (actually
pale golden) ligers. In theory, los tigres blancos could be crossed
with blancos lions to produce blancos, muy pale or incluso stripeless
ligers. There are no black ligers. Very fewmelanistic 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. As blue or Maltese
Tigersprobably ya no existen, gray or blue ligers are exceedingly
improbable. It is not impossible for a liger que ser blanco, but es muy
raro.
Credit by :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger