Comments on: Do You Think That Sabretooth Tigers May Have Been Ligers?

By: Claire

Claire — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:33:37 +0000

no, not at all. saber tooth cats (not tigers) existed before the tiger and lion species we have now. plus, ligers DO NOT exist in the wild, tigers and lions do not share habitats in the wild and therefore do not interbreed. ligers are completely man-made. ligers cannot produce viable offspring (and therefore cannot even be catagorized as a species of large cat) and living ligers have many health issues and would not survive in the wild (that is IF they existed in the wild- which they do not)

By: mitsugir

mitsugir — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:47:32 +0000

No, sabertooth tigers were not ligers. The liger is a cat born from the breeding of a male lion and a female tiger. The name “saber-toothed tiger” is misleading as these animals are not closely related to tigers. They are in different genera, sabertooth in genus smilodon (became extinct many years ago) and liger in genus panthera.
They are both big cats under felidae family. They estimate the weight of the sabertooth to be around 450lbs. And the average male liger weighs over 900 lbs. So the liger is actually weighs twice as much as what the sabertooth tiger weighed.

By: birdgirl

birdgirl — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:53:16 +0000

No! Not at all. Ligers are crosses between a Lion and Tiger, both modern day big cats that are completely different than Saber-toothed Cats. Saber-tooth cats are ancestors of modern day cats, but certainly NOT the same species.

By: phentonm

phentonm — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:51:41 +0000

I don’t think that’s likely. Ligers have only been bred in captivity and lions and tigers usually live in totally different places. “Saber-toothed tigers” as they are incorrectly called, are actually called Smilodon. They could not have survived today because they were adapted to live in the Ice Age! Besides, if they were one and the same, ligers would have big fangs.