Can Ligers Reproduce Or Is It Like Mules… Mules Can’t…can Ligers?

Filed in Category Answers about Ligers

Generally speaking, no – the vast majority of hybrids are sterile. It’s nature’s way of keeping a species pure. However, occasionally a female will be fertile (males are always sterile). The offspring of a female liger and male lion is referred to as a li-liger, whereas if the father is a tiger the young are called ti-ligers. It works the same way with tigons – a female tigon and male tiger produce a ti-tigon, and a female tigon and male lion produce a li-tigon.
A liger is the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, and a tigon is the offspring of a male tiger and female lion, in case you weren’t aware. These animals do not occur in the wild, but are bred by humans in captivity purely for their novelty factor. Ligers tend towards gigantism and usually grow larger than either of their parents, whilst tigons tend towards dwarfism and are usually smaller than their parents. Ligers are generally a tawny colour with faint, faded stripes, whilst tigons are usually darker with more pronounced stripes. Males in both cases often have a short ruff of mane, rather like that of a juvenile male lion – this tends to be more pronounced in ligers than in tigons. Their faces are often a rather odd shape, somewhere between a lion’s and a tiger’s features.



7 Comments so far

  1. Leolupus on August 31, 2009 8:28 AM

    As the name indicates, ligers are a cross between lions(li) and tigers(gers). Lions and tigers are tow different species in one family (Phillidae) like horse and donkeys (Equidae). The offspring have 62 chromosomes (31) pairs (hapliod) instead of 64 in fertile offspring (32) diploid. Thus the ligers , mules and jennet are all infertile ( can not reproduce).

  2. yagoubid on August 31, 2009 8:39 AM

    While male ligers are sterile, female ligers can usually reproduce. Because only female ligers are fertile, a liger cannot reproduce with another liger. The sterility in males is caused by the fact that because of the unstable genes, male ligers never reach puberty.

  3. Lanikai K on August 31, 2009 9:13 AM

    It depends….some females are not sterile….http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hybri…

  4. brizejel on August 31, 2009 9:16 AM

    the liger….”It’s pretty much my favorite animal” …

  5. hallel on August 31, 2009 9:47 AM

    It is said that one should never say never, as nature has certain ways of making us fools.
    For the most parts, Hybrid animals are sterile.
    They do not reproduce.
    At least not at this time!
    k

  6. cptkay20 on August 31, 2009 9:51 AM

    No they can’t. All female ligers are infertile.

  7. ilovemya on August 31, 2009 9:56 AM

    no they can’t.



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