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Lion-tiger Hybrids

The resulting hybrids that crossbreeding between lions and tigers are known as liger(/ˈtaɪɡən/) and tigon(/ˈlaɪɡə/). The second generation hybrids of liger or tigon are known as liliger and litigon. The tigon (Panthera tigris X leo), also known as tiglon (/ˈtaɪɡlən/) is a offspring of a male tiger (Panthera tigris) and a female lion (Panthera leo). A liger is distinct from tigon (Panthera leo X tigris), as a hybrid of female tiger and male lion. They both inherited the characteristics of their parents，but they appear to have different characteristics. In general, ligers are much bigger than tiger either lion, unlike tigons，tigons typically smaller than parent species.

liger
Panthera leo x Panthera tigris, Nowosibirsk Zoo
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Pantherinae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. leo♂ × P. tigris♀

History

In theory, lions and tigers can be matched in the wild and give offspring, but biologists believe that there may be no natural born tigon or liger in the world, because they are separated by Behavioral differences and geographic differences. In England, African lions and Asian tigresses have been successfully mated, and three lion-tiger hybrid cubs were born in Windsor at 1824, which is probably the earliest record, the three cubs were then presented to his Majesty.

Professor Valentine Bail conducted a long observation and recording of some lion-tiger hybrids, those lion-tiger are owned by Mr. Atkins and his zoo:

	Date of birth	place of birth	number of cubs	amount of male cubs	amount of female cubs	longevity
first record	October 24, 1824	Windsor	3	2	1	1 year
second record	April 22, 1825	Clapham Common	3	not recorded	not recorded	short time
third record	December 31, 1826	Edinburgh	3	1	2	a few months
fourth record	October 2, 1828	Windsor	3	1	2	not recorded
fifth record	May, 1831	Kensington	3	not recorded	not recorded	not recorded
sixth record	July 19th, 1833	Liverpool	3	1	2	10 years

The early record lion-tiger hybrid was mainly tigons, 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."

Tigon
Panthera tigris x Panthera leo, National Zoo & Aquarium, Canberra, Australia
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Pantherinae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. tigris♂ × P. leo♀

According to Nicholas's book, it was reported that in special circumstances, tigers were forced to enter the residence of Asian lions. In other reports, in Singapore, witnesses saw a brown cat appearing similarly to the lion and tiger, but with a much larger body, possibly a wild liger.
Voluntary mating of animals from different species is called hyper-sexuality.

The America's first liger was born at 1948, Shasta, the female cub. In Korea the first ever liger cubs were born at 1992. By 2019, Korea has only 1 liger at Everland Zoo in Yongin. In Germany the first ever ligers were born at 1990. In China the history and origin of the captive ligers can be traced from the year 2002. Before that there weren't any ligers in China. Similarly in Russia, the first ever liger were born during the year 2004.

Growth and Size

The largest living liger. The Guinness World Record Holder. (Ali West tags: King Richard's; Faire; Liger; Hercules; Hercules the Liger)

Typically, the size of a liger is more likely to be larger and heavier than all of other existing feline animals. Some biologists believe that the causes of its irregular large size, or 'gigantism', are resulting from the lack of certain genes, those genes could limiting the growth of lion. The male lion's genes are tend to maximizing the growth of its progeny, as the larger size represents greater competitiveness, so that the male lions could compete with other male lions. In order to control the size of the offspring within a certain range, the gene of the lioness will offset the growth-maximizing gene of the male lion, the genes of female tiger, however, are not adapted to limiting the growth, which allows ligers to grow extremely large, far more larger and heavier than its parent species. In general, most of ligers grow more than 3.3 meters (10.8 feet) and weigh more than 400 kg (900 pounds). According to the Guinness world records, up to 2013, the record holder of the largest feline, was the adult male liger Hercules, from Myrtle Beach Safari, a wildlife reserve in South Carolina, USA. He was measured as 3.33 m (131 in), stands 1.25 m (49 in) at the shoulder, and weighs 418.2 kg (922 lb). Hercules eats approximately 13.6 kg (30 lb) of meat per day, and drink several liters of water per day.

Tigons have growth dysplasia as well, however, inversely. They are smaller than its members of parents species, weighing less than 150 kg, tigon is twice as light as liger or more.

Unlike ligers, tigons are cross between a male tiger and a female lion, the absence of growth-maximizing genes from male lion causing them to grow smaller.

longevity

Shasta the liger on display at the Bean Museum of BYU.

A liger called Samson died at the age of thirteen at 2006. Shasta, a female liger, she was born in the Hogle zoo in Salt Lake CIty at 1948, and died in 1972, she lived for 24 years. Many claim that ligers are short-lived, but according to the survey, such a conclusion is still uncertain. A male tigon owned by Atkins born in July 19th, 1833, lived for 10 years and died.

A pair of twin tigons , were born in Yancheng Safari Park of Changzhou city on December 26, 2011. One of the cub ( the female cub) died soon after its birth, but the male cub is healthy. Tigons have a lower survival rate than ligers，because it is much harder for a female lion to give birth than a female tiger. Although the survival rate of cubs is extremely low, it can't be conclude that these hybrids must be short-lived and unhealthy.

One can prove that the lion-tiger hybrids could be longevous and healthy , a famous female liger, known as Shasta, who is the first liger cub born in America, on May 14th, 1948 she was born at the Hogle zoo in Salt Lake City. On July 19, 1972, Shasta died at age 24. During her lifetime, she became a Utah icon, raising the profile of Hogle Zoo and attracting thousands of curious visitors. After she died, the body was made into a specimen and continued to be exhibited in the zoo for several decades, and then moved to museum in 1999.

Fertility

Guggisberg said liger and tigon were thought to be invariably sterile, which means they cannot have offspring, however, the first hybrid of hybrid, that is a child of liger, were discovered at the Munich-Hellabrunn Zoo at 1943. The birth of the second generation of hybrids has proved that the biologists' knowledge of tigon and liger was wrong, only male lion-tiger hybrids are invariably sterile，female hybrids can give birth as other Panthera animals as well, and their offspring are named as Liliger and Lition.

second generation hybrid

liliger

In 1943, at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo, a 15 years old hybrid between a lion and a tiger matched with a lion and gave birth to a second generation hybrid. The female cub, though of delicate health, was successfully raised to adulthood. In Sep 2012, a baby liliger named Kiara was been born in a Russia zoo. Then same couple then gave birth to three more liligers cubs, Sandra, Eva and Luna, all female cubs. At November 29, 2013, the Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park in Wynnewood, Okla. has announced the birth of three female liliger cubs from a male lion Simba and a female liger Akaria. Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota has said "In terms of conservation, it's so far away from anything, it's kind of pointless to even say it's irrelevant". The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the organisation responsible for accrediting zoos in North America, neither approves of nor breeds the animals, because they focus on the conservation of wildlife and programs serving that purpose.

litigon

A litigon (/ˌlaɪˈtaɪɡən/) is a rare second generation hybrid, it is a offspring of a female tigon and a male lion. The first result was a female cub born at the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta, India. The litigon named Cubanacan, was born at 7 March 1979, and was the only surviving cub of his litter of three. The birth of Cubanacan has proved that litigon does not need to be smaller than lion and tiger, Cubanacan was once the world’s largest big cat, according to Guinness in 1985, weighed 363 kg (800 pounds), stood 1.32 m (4.4 inches) at the shoulder and measured 3.5 m (11.6 inches) in length.

other hybrids

	Lion	Tiger
Jaguar	Jaglion	Jagger
Leopard	Leopon	Leoger

leopon

A leopons is a hybrid resulting from the cross between a female lion and a male leopard. A male leopard has successfully mating with a lioness in the Koshien Zoo in Japan, leopons have a similar head to the lion, while the rest if its body carries similarities to the leopards. Around the turn of century, 3 leopons were born in Chicago zoo, 1 male cubs and 2 female cubs, the male cubs did not live for long, while the 2 female cubs were raised into adulthood, similar in size to a jaguar.

Leoger

A leoger is a hybrid resulting from the cross between a female tiger and a male leopard.

Jaglion

A jaglion is a hybrid between a female lion and a male jaguar.

Jagger

A jagger is a hybrid between a female tiger and a male Jaglion.

Appearance

Ligers and tigons look just like their parents, only bigger or smaller. They have huge teeth，about two inches long. Their genes include the genetic components of tigers and lions，therefore they may very similar to tigers and lions, and even difficult to identify, and range from gold to brown to white, have or not have spots or stripes. An adult male liger usually have smaller mane than a male lion.

Sometimes hybrids may have unusual appearances or other characteristics. In December 2013, a white Bengal tigress called Saraswati at Myrtle Beach Safari Park in South Carolina, USA, gave birth to 4 hybrid cubs and it is the world's first white ligers record. The 4 white liger cubs who named Odin, Sampson, Yeti, and Apollo, were healthy and have survived successfully and were raised to maturity.

Zoo

By 2017 roughly more than 100 ligers were thought to exist, but only a few of tigon still exists on Earth，since tigon is more difficult to breed and survive, moreover, ligers are more likely to attract tourists to the zoo, so zoos prefers to breed liger instead of tigon.

Some of animal protection organizations claiming to refuse to breed liger and tigon, obviously, they have enough reason to condemn the zoo‘s behavior. Wild lions and tigers usually live in different regions. Their hybrids are unnatural, and they will never occur in the natural environment. Ligers and tigons are not able to produce offspring, and they have incomplete DNA, which may causing them unhealthy.

Some zoos claim they breed ligers or tigons for conservation, but opponents，on the other hand, believe that it is meaningless to preserve a species that does not exist in the wild.

In some places, the cross between tiger and lion has been forbidden. A zoo in Taiwan violated the animal protection law because of the birth of two hybrids, and was fined $1,562 by the local authorities. Although the owner of the zoo accepted the fine, he said that he was innocent. He did not deliberately make these young cubs. They were born naturally through the lions and tigers living in the same cage.