Ligers....they really exist!

I always thought they were a joke from Napoleon Dynamite but apparently Tigers and Lions can cross breed. Ironically though thanks to an odd number of chomosones the ligers themselves are effectively sterile.
Liger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/photogalleries/ligers_dynamite/images/primary/Liger2.jpg
http://i37.tinypic.com/2lxw0mc.jpg

My god what an awesome animal. Look how huge it is compared to that woman in the 3rd picture. I love big cats. Top of the food chain.

One swipe from those paws and your guts are on the ground.

Yep, health issues though; they need to eat a lot but can get lazy/too slow, etc. Of course other issues with crossbreeding.

I prefer the tigon (also known as tigron, tiglon, and some other names since they have no scientific name)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2095/2520259261_aa7b54b032.jpg

and how can you not AWWW at this?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vaBIYoXUg3Q/SYUpZotlNeI/AAAAAAAADEQ/joWOUxrEX1I/s800/tigron-singe.jpg

My god what an awesome animal. Look how huge it is compared to that woman in the 3rd picture. I love big cats. Top of the food chain.

One swipe from those paws and your guts are on the ground.

I know right. One of dem mother f**kin miracles. Personally I hate house cats but lions and tigers make for great footage on Animal Planet and Discovery.


Seems like it matters which ones the male and which one's the female.
Patrick was created the same way every liger is: A male lion was mated with a female tiger. (When a female lion is mated with a male tiger, the result is a tiglon, or tigon.)

Since tigers and lions do not likely interbreed in the wild, some critics find the breeding of ligers unethical. At accredited zoos "keeping the two species separate has always been standard procedure," according to Jane Ballentine, a spokesperson for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

They sound like indeed a "rare" breed all rolled up into one!

But do they have talons?

Ligors, and tiglons, and chimps ... oh my

Aren't they breed mostly for their skills in magic?

Anyway, here's a Retiger:
http://www.gideonstrumpet.org/images/tigerman.jpg

Aren't they breed mostly for their skills in magic?
Anyway, here's a Retiger:
http://www.gideonstrumpet.org/images/tigerman.jpg

I always thought they were a joke from Napoleon Dynamite but apparently Tigers and Lions can cross breed. Ironically though thanks to an odd number of chomosones the ligers themselves are effectively sterile.


I rest my case. Freaking miracles!

I think I read somewhere that they can grow to gigantic proportions because the genes that regulate growth get wonky in the crossbreeding.