Curiosities ~ Ligres and Tiglons

Today I will dedicate this post to one of the most interesting marvel of the world: the evolution of tigers and lions.

1. The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress. It has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar tiglon.

Ligers enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Ligers exist only in captivity because the habitats of the parental species do not overlap in the wild. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tiglons which tend to be about as large as a female tiger. Amazing, isn’t it?

The liger has both stripes and spots. The stripes are inherited from its tiger parent and the spots from the lion parent. Ligers are usually orangish/golden in color. However, there have been white tigers bred with lions to produce a very light golden coat on the offspring. If the hybrid offspring is a male, it will have a leonine mane, facial ruff of a tiger but it will not be as large and defined as a normal lion's mane.

The liger gets most of its strength and size from both of its parents. On their hind legs, ligers stand approximately 12 feet tall. At most, ligers may weigh up to 1,000 pounds. Their highest weight ever recorded is 1600 pounds. Other cat species like tigers and lions are almost half or less than the weights of the ligers. 

However, the keepers and handlers do not want to make the ligers fat. Usually they give the ligers around 30 pounds of meat in one day.

Ligers make the sound of both a lion and a tiger, although their roar tends to sound more like a lion's roar. A liger is capable of achieving a maximum speed of 50 - 60 miles per hour. The exact numbers of ligers are near to 100. The lifespan of ligers, as well as other hybrid animals, is shorter than a normal species.

2. A tiglon, tigon, or tion (not tigron) is a hybrid cross between a male tiger and a lioness. It has parents with the same genus but of different species. The tiglon in not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the liger; tiglons were more common than ligers. They often weigh around 180 kilograms.

There is less interest in tigons because they do not reach the same impressive size as the liger. The size and appearance depends on which subspecies are bred together.

Tigons are sometimes referred to as Tiglons Tigons are very rare; only a few exist in the world and even those are only held by private owners. This is because it is much more difficult to get the male tiger to mate with the female lion. Tigons look similar to ligers. They have varying stripes and spots. Tigons are also orangish in color. They are able to produce both lion and tiger sounds when they roar. One difference between tigons and ligers is their size. Tigons are not nearly as large as ligers. In fact, tigons are often times smaller than both of their parents. The lifespan of tigons, as well as other hybrid animals, is shorter than a normal species. They are are prone to cancers and other illnesses.

3. Reports also exist of the similar titigon, which result from the cross between a female tiglon and a male tiger. Titigons resemble golden tigers but with less contrast in their markings.

So, what do you think about all this? I was shocked when I saw it, but it is so amazing and wonderful.