Liger
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Panthera

The Liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a female tiger (i.e, Panthera leo × Panthera tigris^[1]). A liger resembles a tiger with diffused stripes. They are the largest cats in the world, although the Siberian Tiger is the largest "pure" taxon. Ligers and tigers enjoy swimming, whereas lions do not. A similar hybrid, the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion is called a tigon. Liger may refer to several different things: Biology Liger is a crossbreed between lion and tiger Liger is a genus of spiders in the Linyphiidae family Geography Liger is the classical name of the Loire River, in modern-day France Fiction Several mecha in the Zoids fictional universe are referred... Image File history File links Bertramliger. ... Scientific classification redirects here. ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Typical Classes Subphylum Urochordata - Tunicates Ascidiacea Thaliacea Larvacea Subphylum Cephalochordata - Lancelets Subphylum Myxini - Hagfishes Subphylum Vertebrata - Vertebrates Petromyzontida - Lampreys Placodermi (extinct) Chondrichthyes - Cartilaginous fishes Acanthodii (extinct) Actinopterygii - Ray-finned fishes Actinistia - Coelacanths Dipnoi - Lungfishes Amphibia - Amphibians Reptilia - Reptiles Aves - Birds Mammalia - Mammals Chordates (phylum Chordata) include the vertebrates, together with... Orders Subclass Monotremata Monotremata Subclass Marsupialia Didelphimorphia Paucituberculata Microbiotheria Dasyuromorphia Peramelemorphia Notoryctemorphia Diprotodontia Subclass Placentalia Xenarthra Dermoptera Desmostylia Scandentia Primates Rodentia Lagomorpha Insectivora Chiroptera Pholidota Carnivora Perissodactyla Artiodactyla Cetacea Afrosoricida Macroscelidea Tubulidentata Hyracoidea Proboscidea Sirenia The mammals are the class of vertebrate animals primarily characterized by the presence of mammary... Families 17, See classification The diverse order Carnivora (IPA: or ; from Latin carō (stem carn-) flesh, + vorāre to devour) includes over 260 species of placental mammals. ... “Feline” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Panthera (disambiguation). ... This article is about a biological term. ... Crossbreeding is the process of creating hybrids (also known as crossbreeds, or a description of the lineage of that which has undergone hybridization. ... For other uses, see Lion (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Tiger (disambiguation). ... Trinomial name Panthera tigris altaica Temminck, 1884 Distribution of the Siberian tiger (in red) The Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) is a rare subspecies of tiger (). Also known as the Amur, Manchurian, Korean, Altaic, or North China tiger, it is confined completely to the Amur region in the Far East... A taxon (plural taxa), or taxonomic unit, is a grouping of organisms (named or unnamed). ... This article is about the Male sex. ... For other uses, see Female (disambiguation). ... Tigron redirects here. ...

Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild.^[2] Such mating may have occurred when, in uncommon circumstances, tigers were forced into ranges inhabited by the Asiatic Lion, Panthera leo persica. However, since the present-day ranges of wild lions and tigers no longer overlap,^[3] it is generally held that such a combination of species would occur very rarely.^[4] Trinomial name Panthera leo persica Meyer, 1826 Current distribution of the Asiatic Lion in the wild Synonyms Leo leo goojratensis (India) Leo leo persicus (Persia) The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica; also known as Indian Lion) is a subspecies of the lion found only in India. ... In biology, the range of an species is the geographical area within which that species can be found. ...

History

Documentation of ligers dates to at least the early 19th century in Asia. 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 naïve style. An engraving of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. ...

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 Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg in 1897. William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. ... Queen Victoria redirects here. ... is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Ğ: For the film, see: 1900 (film). ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Carl Hagenbeck Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913) was a merchant in wild animals and future entrepreneur of many European zoos. ... James Cossar Ewart (born November 26, 1851 in Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland; died there December 31, 1933) was a zoologist. ... For other uses, see Hamburg (disambiguation). ...

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 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. Bloemfontein (pronounced , Afrikaans and Dutch for spring of Bloem (bloom), flower spring or fountain of flowers is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa. ...

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] Tigron redirects here. ...

Size and growth

Imprinted genes may be a factor contributing to liger size.^[7] These are genes that may or may not be expressed on the parent they are inherited from, and that occasionally play a role in issues of hybrid growth. For example, in some dog 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] Genomic imprinting is the phenomenon whereby a small subset of all the genes in the genome are expressed according to their parent of origin. ...

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.

Hercules the liger and his trainer

Image File history File links Ligertrainer. ... Image File history File links Ligertrainer. ...

Hercules and Sindbad

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 408.25 kg (900 lb) at the time.^{[citation needed]} 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 have been a complete accident. Sinbad, another Liger, was shown on the National Geographic Channel. Sinbad was reported to have the exact weight of Hercules. Jungle Island is an animal theme park in the city of Miami, Florida. ... This article is about the city in Florida. ... The Today Show, officially known as Today, is an American morning news and talk show airing weekday mornings on NBC. Debuting on January 14, 1952, it was the first of its genre, spawning similar morning news and entertainment television programs across the United States and around the world. ... Good Morning America is a weekday morning news show that is broadcast on the ABC television network. ... Anderson Cooper 360° (pronounced Anderson Cooper three-sixty) is a news show on CNN featuring Anderson Cooper as host and anchor. ... Inside Edition is a syndicated news program, on the air since January 9, 1989. ... Maxim is an international mens magazine that is prominent for depicting popular actresses, singers, and other female celebrities in sexually alluring poses, usually wearing lingerie or other brief attire. ... Kg redirects here. ... Look up pound in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... “Feline” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Scientific classification (disambiguation). ...

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 had a male liger named Nook who weighed around 550 kg (1210 lb), and passed away in 2007, at 21-years-old. The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Salt Lake Citys top tourist draw. ... May 14 is the 134th day of the year (135th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ...

Fertility

While male ligers are sterile, female ligers can usually reproduce^{[citation needed]}. Because only female ligers and tigons are fertile, a liger cannot reproduce with another liger or with a tigon. The sterility in males is caused by the fact that because of the unstable genes, male ligers never reach puberty. While they continue to age and grow they do not become sexually mature.^{[citation needed]}

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). Haldanes rule relating to hybrids of species and extended to speciation in evolutionary theory is easily stated: When in the offspring of two different animal races one sex is absent, rare, or sterile, that sex is the heterozygous (heterogametic) sex. ... A sex-determination system is a biological system that determines the development of sexual characteristics in an organism. ... ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ... The human Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes, it contains the genes that cause testis development, thus determining maleness. ...

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] Tierpark Hellabrunn is the name of the zoological garden in the Bavarian capital Munich. ...

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. A jaguar with prominent rosettes A rosette is a rose-like marking or formation which is found in clusters and patches on the fur of leopards, jaguars, and other big cats. ...

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 here. 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. In the public eye white, or more correctly, chinchilla tigers are perhaps the colour which is to be most admired. ... Melanism is an increased amount of black or nearly black pigmentation (as of skin, feathers, or hair) of an individual or kind of organism. ... A black tiger is a rare colour variant of the tiger and is not a distinct species or geographic race. ... Melanism is an increased amount of black or nearly black pigmentation (as of skin, feathers, or hair) of an individual or kind of organism. ... The Maltese Tigeris a suspected coloration morph of tiger that has historically been reported in the Fujian Province of China and claimed to have been sighted on a few occasions. ...

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. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (formerly the American Zoo and Aquarium Association), or AZA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation. ... The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (formerly the American Zoo and Aquarium Association), or AZA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation. ...

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." However, the animal he draws resembles a manticore more than a liger.

• Several fictional mecha from the Zoids model and anime franchise are described as Liger types: most notably, the Shield Liger, Blade Liger, and Liger Zero.

• The Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah have had a liger which was born on May 14, 1948 and died in 1972.

This article is about the movie. ... Manticore illustration from The History of Four-footed Beasts (1607) For other uses, see Manticore (disambiguation). ... For the microscopic lifeform, see Zooid. ... The Shield Liger is a Lion-type Zoid, one of over 200 species of biomechanical lifeforms central to the Zoids model kit, toy, and media franchises owned and primarily distributed by TOMY. The Shield Liger plays a central role in Zoids: Chaotic Century, and appears in most of the anime... The Blade Liger is a type of Zoid, a race of mechanical lifeforms from the fictional Zoids universe. ... The Liger Zero is a Lion-type Zoid, one of over 200 species of biomechanical life forms that provide the basis for TOMY’s model kit, anime, and comic based Zoids franchise. ...

See also

Look up Liger in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Panthera hybrid
• Leopon

Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 151 languages. ... There are a number of hybrids of Panthera genus. ... A leopon is the result of breeding a male leopard with a female lion, or lioness. ...

References

Alan Alexander Milne (IPA pronunciation: ) (January 18, 1882 – January 31, 1956), also known as A. A. Milne, was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various childrens poems. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is a United States non-profit medical research institute based in Chevy Chase, Maryland and originally founded by the aviator and engineer Howard Hughes in 1953. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• Peters, G. "Comparative Investigation of Vocalisation in Several Felids" published in German in Spixiana-Supplement, 1978; (1): 1-206.
• Courtney, N. The Tiger, Symbol of Freedom. Quartet Books, London, 1980.

External links

• Liger Photos and the truth about Ligers
• Shasta the Liger
• Hercules the Liger at Snopes.com
• More pictures of Hercules
• Hobbs at the Sierra Safari Zoo.
• Patrick at the Shambala Preserve
• Liger cubs at Noah's Ark Zoo, Grömitz, Germany (German)
• Hybrid Big Cats, pages [1]
• Patrick the Liger from National Geographic
• A drawing of a liger as seen in Napoleon Dynamite
• Liger Tribute
• Liger Video of Sinbad (900 pound liger)
• Liger Info Further pictures and information of ligers.
• Liger Pictures Liger Pictures from the Animal Safari in Pine Mountain Georgia
• The Liger Exists

This article incorporates text from messybeast.com, which is released under the GFDL. The Urban Legends Reference Pages (also known as snopes. ... Grömitz is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. ... The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ... This article is about the movie. ... GFDL redirects here. ...