What are the hybrids of lions and tigers called? Liger (Liger) - the largest cat in the world Who is a liger

Description

In appearance and size, it is similar to the cave lion and its relative the American lion, which died out in the Pleistocene. Ligers are the largest cats in the world today. The largest liger is Hercules from the Jungle Island interactive theme park. Male ligers, with rare exceptions, have almost no mane and, unlike lions, ligers can and love to swim.

Another feature of ligers is that female ligers (ligers) can produce offspring, which is unusual for hybrids. This is likely due to genomic imprinting. Genes that accelerate the growth of the fetus and placenta during genomic imprinting usually work on the paternal chromosome, and genes that inhibit the growth of the embryo - on the maternal one. It is assumed that in polygamous species (including lions, in which a female can mate with several males), the effect of paternal genes is more pronounced than in monogamous species (which include tigers). Ligers receive genes from the lion father that actively promote the growth of offspring, while the genes that inhibit the growth of offspring from the tiger mother are weaker. The tiger father has less active growth-promoting genes, while the lioness mother has more active growth-inhibiting genes that work during the development of her offspring. This explains the fact that the liger is larger than the lion, and the tigrolev is smaller than the tiger.

Dimensions and weight

A liger can reach a length of four meters or more, and weigh more than three hundred kilograms (this is a third more than that of large lions). The largest living liger, Hercules, weighs 450 kg, which is twice as heavy as the average lion.

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Ligers do not occur in nature mainly because lions and tigers have almost no chance of meeting in the wild: the modern range of the lion includes mainly central and southern Africa (although the last surviving population of Asiatic lions exists in India), while the tiger - exclusively Asian. Therefore, species crossing occurs when animals live in the same enclosure or cage for a long time (for example, in a zoo or circus), but only 1-2% of pairs give offspring, which is why there are no more than two dozen ligers in the world today.

In Russia, one ligress is kept in the Novosibirsk Zoo, the other in the Lipetsk Zoo. Also, ligers can be seen at the performances of the Bolshoi Moscow State Circus (2009). One ligress named Marusya is kept in a mini-zoo at the Oktyabrsky sanatorium in Sochi (2012). Another liger settled in a mini-zoo near the Vladivostok-Nakhodka highway (2015).

liligers

According to Haldane's rule, male ligers are sterile, while females are usually

A couple of years ago, the Internet was filled with photographs of very large cats that looked like tigers and lions at the same time. From the comments on the pictures, one could find out that they depict a liger - the largest cat in the world, whose body length reaches 4 meters. Many then did not believe in what they saw, referring to the almighty Photoshop, others believed and, as it turned out, did the right thing.

Who are ligers and tigons?

Both are hybrids from crossing lions and tigers, but since the natural ranges of these cats do not intersect anywhere, neither tigers nor ligers are ever found in the wild. Both hybrids are very similar in appearance to their parents, or rather to their crossbreed, because. inherit the most expressive features: a mane, alternating stripes. This is where the similarities end; in all other respects, these species bear little resemblance to each other.

• liger- a hybrid of a male lion and a tigress.
• Tigrolev (tigon)- a hybrid of a male tiger and a lioness.

4 meter super beast

Ligers are the largest representatives of the cat family living in our time. In size, they are much larger than lions, tigers, and sometimes a lion and a tiger combined. The mass of such a superbeast often approaches 400 kg, and the length can exceed 4 meters. Outwardly, ligers look like a large lion with a barely pronounced mane and light, almost indistinguishable stripes on the body.

Male (right) and female (left) ligers at a zoo in South Korea.

Of the living ligers, the largest is a male named Hercules from the Jungle Island amusement park in Miami, his weight is 410 kg. However, the Guinness Book of Records contains an entry for a 798 kg liger that lived in the Bloemfontein Zoological Gardens National Park in South Africa.

Hercules is the largest liger and representative of the felines in general.

Interestingly, ligers will inherit not only external features, but also some physical features and character traits. For example, ligers love attention and communication with people, like lions, and at the same time, they inherited love for water and resistance to frost from tigers.

The ligress Zita from the Novosibirsk Zoo can easily endure the cold and loves to play in the snow.

Modest Tigers

Tigrolev is a beast of a much more modest size, as a rule they are an order of magnitude smaller than their parents, since they have an innate tendency to dwarfism. The average weight of an adult hybrid is approximately 150 kg, for comparison, an adult lion weighs 200-250 kg, a tiger - 270-320 kg. Actually, by no means impressive in size, the lesser popularity of tigons is explained, although they themselves are very interesting and very beautiful cats.

Tigon at the zoo. Photo: Bentley Smith

Appearance is more like a tiger: the color is more contrasting, the stripes are more pronounced. Males often grow a short but dense mane of dark wool.

Male tigons and ligers are sterile from birth and do not have the opportunity to have offspring, while females in some cases are able to become pregnant and give healthy offspring from tigers and lions.

This pair of tigons (male and female) from the Canbera Zoo will never be able to get kittens.

Causes of gigantism and dwarfism

The secret of this mystery lies in a process called gene imprinting, the essence of which is that during interspecific crossing, the more active genes of one of the parents suppress the underactive genes of the other. Exploring the issue of gigantism / dwarfism from feline hybrids, zoologists and geneticists found that the father (paternal chromosomes) is responsible for the genes that accelerate the growth of the fetus, while the mother is responsible for the genes that inhibit growth.

In polygamous and gregarious male lions, the so-called growth genes are more active than in monogamous male tigers. Accordingly, in lionesses, genes that inhibit growth are more active than those in tigresses. It follows that ligers have a tendency to gigantism because the growth genes of the father of the lion suppress the already weak deterrent genes of the tigress. With tigons, everything is exactly the opposite: the growth inhibition genes of the lioness suppress the weak growth genes of the father of the tiger.

Little ligers (up to 2 months old) do not differ in size from lion cubs and tiger cubs. But over time, they grow to gigantic proportions, and their growth never stops.

Liger kittens look more like tigers, but over time, their appearance will change a little.

Tigreon or liger it is a hybrid mixture of a lion and a tigress. It looks like a giant lion with blurry stripes all over its body. Male ligers have a mane that grows later and is much shorter than that of a lion. They can roar like lions and puff like tigers. Females demonstrate conflicting needs, sometimes they behave like lionesses and arrange prides, sometimes they prefer to live like tigresses, that is, loners.

Even in the book “Change of animals and plants during domestication”, Charles Darwin wrote that many species of cats bred in zoos, although they were brought from different climatic zones of the earth and lived earlier in some isolation. At the same time, Mr. Barlet (“Proc. Zoolog. Soc.“, 1861 page 140) noted that lions breed more often and give more offspring than other cat species. He adds that tigers are rarely bred, but there are well-documented instances of tiger-lion crossings in captivity. Moreover, in captivity, many animals combine with different species and produce hybrids as freely as with individuals of their own species. Voluntary hybridization of some zoo animals is called hypersexuality.

The first ligers were described by Mr. Cuvier, who wrote about a litter of three lion tigers born in England in 1824 from an African lion and an Asiatic tigress, owned by the traveler and dealer Mr. Atkins. Born kittens were even shown to the royal family in Windsor. Cuvier presented 2 gaurures of 3 month old cubs, noting that it is likely that they will reach maturity. He described their coloration as dirty yellow, implying camel color, with stripes and spots darker than that of a tiger, located on the head and on some parts of the body.

At first, the first hybrids belonged to Mr. Thomas Atkins, then they passed to his son and in the period from 1824 to 1833 6 litters were produced. The female was a tigress from the collection of the Marquis Hastings of Calcutta, which had been bought from the captain of the ship. The lion was bred in a menagerie. The tigress and the lion were the same age when they were placed in the same cage. The first litter appeared on October 24, 1824, consisting of two males and a female. All died within a year of birth. The second litter was born April 22, 1825 from three kittens, who soon died. The third litter was born on December 31, 1826 or 1827. Subsequently, the skin of one liger from this litter was in the art museum in Edinburgh. The fourth litter appeared on October 2, 1828 in Windsor, in the amount of one male and two females. The fifth litter was in May 1831 in Kesington of three cubs (the sex was not described). The sixth litter was born on 19th July 1833 at the Liverpool Zoological Gardens. There were one male and two females in the litter. The male lived for 10 years and from the age of three, his mane began to grow, and the stripes along the body became fuzzy and lighter with age.

In 1935, 4 ligers from two litters were raised at the Bloemfontein Zoological Garden in South Africa. Three of them, a male and two females, were still living in 1953. The male weighed 750 pounds and was a foot and a half taller than a lion. Although hybrids do not live long, there is documented evidence that the Shasta liger at the Holge Zoo in Salt Lake City set a longevity record: he was born on May 14, 1948 and died in 1972 at the age of 24 years.

Usually they grow up to 4 meters and weigh more than 500 kg, and become larger than their parents. Often they have the shape of a head from a lion, and the body from a mother of a tigress. This is due to the fact that from a tigress they receive genes that inhibit the growth of offspring, and from a lion dad, genes that accelerate growth, and therefore they grow throughout their lives. However, the tail and legs do not grow and remain short in relation to the body, so male ligers may not be able to walk because they cannot support their weight. The opposite happens with the tiger. This is a cross between a lioness and a tiger, which looks somewhat lanky, less bulky, with strong legs and a long tail.

In 1984, 2 ligers were mated and produced offspring, which disproved the theory that male ligers are sterile (The Gazette, Quebec, Montreal 1988, May 14)

Ligers are the largest cats, the giants of the cat tribe. Males have a milder temperament due to lack of testosterone (male hybrids are usually sterile). Due to the craze for giant cats, ligers are more popular than a cross between a tiger and a lioness. And although ligers have a docile nature, their size and strength make them dangerous, especially when on the defensive or in a state of excitement. In October 2008, a zoo worker was mortally bruised and bitten. He entered the cage to feed Rocky's 1,000 pound liger, breaking zoo rules. The worker was bitten on the back and neck and died in the hospital the next day.

Hybrids of tigers, lions, leopards and jaguars are usually called "double" words, the first syllable of which is inherited from the father, and the second indicates the species of the mother.

As a rule, representatives of these species do not mate with each other, since their ranges almost do not overlap. Hybrids are born exclusively in zoos, inevitably becoming popular "exhibits".

Such a fate, for example, awaits ligers - the largest cats on the planet. An adult liger is twice as heavy as its own father or mother and can reach four meters in length. The largest liger is considered to be the 400-kilogram Hercules listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Tigers and lions share about seven million years of separate evolution, but these animals are capable of interbreeding. However, as an expert from the conservation organization Panthera Luke Hunter, with interspecies contacts, the chances of genetic disorders are high: the cubs will almost certainly be sterile.

Since ligers and their brethren are born irregularly, their congenital ailments have not yet been fully explored.

To be fair, some of the hybrids do well and even breed. So, the ligress Zita from the Novosibirsk Zoo became pregnant from the lion Samson and gave birth to the world's first liligren in 2012.

Incredible Facts

In the fictional world, there are many strange and unusual creatures, and with the help of Photoshop, you can create different non-existent animals.

All animals in this list are real.

These real hybrid animals are the result of genetic engineering, which in the future may give rise to even more exotic creatures.

Did you know about such animals as leopon, narluha or hainak?

Animal hybrids (photo)

1. Liger - a hybrid of a lion and a tigress

Ligers are the offspring of male lions and female tigresses. Although there are legends that ligers roam the wild, at the moment they exist only in captivity, where they are specially bred.

There is a misconception that ligers do not stop growing all their lives. They don't, they just grow to enormous sizes in their growth range. Ligers are the largest felines in the world. Hercules - the largest liger weighs 418 kg.

2. Tigon - a hybrid of a tiger and a lioness

The tigon or tigrolev is a hybrid of a male tiger and a female lioness. It was believed that tigons are smaller than their parents, but in fact, they reach the same size, but they are smaller than ligers.

Both ligers and tigers are able to produce their offspring, which leads to the birth of hybrids such as titigons or liligers.

3. Zebroid - a hybrid of a zebra and a horse

A zebroid is a mixture of a zebra and other equines. Zebroids have existed for a long time, they were mentioned in Darwin's notes. As a rule, these are males with the physiology of a non-zebra parent and stripes adorning certain parts of the body.

Zebroids are more wild than pets, difficult to tame, and more aggressive than horses.

4. Coywalk - a hybrid of a coyote and a wolf

Coyotes are genetically similar to red and eastern wolves, from which they split off about 150,000 to 300,000 years ago. Interbreeding between them is not only possible, but is becoming more common as the wolf population recovers.

However, coyotes are not very compatible with gray wolves, from which they are genetically separated by 1-2 million years. Some hybrids, although they exist, are very rare.

There are different hybrids of coywolves that inhabit mainly North America. They are usually larger than coyotes, but smaller than wolves, and have characteristics of both species.

5. Grolar - a hybrid of a white and brown bear

Grolar, also called "polar grizzlies", are a hybrid of a polar bear and a brown bear. Most polar grizzlies live in the zoo, but there have been a few cases where they have been seen in the wild. In 2006, an Alaskan hunter shot and killed one.

Outwardly, they are similar to both polar and brown bears, but in behavior they are closer to polar bears.

6. Savannah - a hybrid of a domestic cat and a serval

This amazing but rare breed is a hybrid of domestic cats and a serval, a type of wild cat that lives in Africa. They are very large and act like dogs, following their owners around the house, wagging their tails to show pleasure, and even playing catch.

In addition, savannahs are not afraid of water and adapt easily. However, these cats are very expensive.

Interspecific hybrids of animals

7. Killer whale - a hybrid of a killer whale and a dolphin

From the male of the little black killer whale and the female bottlenose dolphin, killer whales appear. They are extremely rare, and only one representative is known to exist in captivity.

8. Cow bison - a hybrid of a cow and a bison

A hybrid of a cow and a bison has existed since the 19th century, when they were called katalos. Cow bison are healthier than cattle and cause less environmental damage to the prairies where they graze.

Unfortunately, as a result of breeding, there are now only 4 herds of bison that do not have cow genes.

9. Loshak - a hybrid of a stallion and a donkey

In fact, a hinny is the opposite of a mule. The mule is the offspring of a donkey and a mare, and the hinny is a hybrid of a stallion and a donkey. Their head is similar to that of a horse, and they are slightly smaller than mules. Also, hinnies are less common than mules.

10. Narlukha - a hybrid of a narwhal and a beluga whale

The narwhal and the beluga whale are two members of the narwhal family, so it's not surprising that they are capable of interbreeding.

However, they are extremely rare. Recently, they have been seen more frequently in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, which many consider a sign of climate change.

11. Kama - a hybrid of a camel and a llama

Kama did not exist until 1998. Some scientists at the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai decided to cross a male dromedary with a female llama through artificial insemination, producing the first kama.

The goal was to produce wool and use the kama as a beast of burden. To date, five camel-llama hybrids have been produced.

12. Hainak or dzo - a hybrid of a cow and a yak

The zo (male) and zomo (female) are hybrids between domestic cows and wild yaks. They are mainly found in Tibet and Mongolia, where they are valued for their high yield of meat and milk. They are larger and stronger than both cows and yaks, and are often used as beasts of burden.

Animal hybrids

13. Leopon - a hybrid of a leopard and a lioness

A leopon appears from a male leopard and a lioness. This situation is almost impossible in the wild, because all leopons were raised in captivity. Leopons have the head and mane of a lion, and the body of a leopard.

14. Sheep-goat hybrid

Goats and sheep seem very similar, but they are much more different from each other than it seems at first glance. Natural hybrids between these animals are usually stillborn and extremely rare. The animal, called the goat-sheep chimera, was artificially reared from goat and sheep embryos.

15. Yaglev - a hybrid of a jaguar and a lioness

Yaglev is a hybrid of a male jaguar and a lioness. Two yagles, named Zhazhara and Tsunami, were born in the Bear Creek Wildlife Refuge in Ontario.

16. Mulard - a hybrid of wild and musky duck

Mulard is a cross between a wild duck and a Muscovy duck. The Muscovy Duck is native to South and Central America and is distinguished by bright red growths on its face. Moulards are raised for meat and foie gras, and they themselves cannot produce their offspring.

17. Zubron - a hybrid of a cow and a bison

Zubron is a hybrid of a cow and a bison. Zubrons are superior to domestic cows in many respects, as they are stronger and more resistant to disease.

They were considered as a possible replacement for cattle, but now bison remain in only one herd in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Poland.