Ligers & Tigons…good Evolution Or Not?
Filed in Category Answers about Ligers
Liger: the offspring of a male lion and a tigress. These can be up to 1000lb in weight, and approx. 12ft long. Males are said to be sterile (and therefore docile due to lack of testosterone) while females are generally fertile, which means they can never reproduce together. Female ligers can reproduce with either a male lion to create a li-liger or a male tiger to produce a ti-liger.
Tigon: the offspring of a male tiger and a lioness. They have never been known to grow any bigger than either parent. Again males (and again docile due to lack of testosterone) are said to be sterile whilst the females are fertile. Females can reproduce with a male tiger to create a ti-tigon or a male lion to produce a li-tigon.
So whilst these undoubtedly very beautiful animals satisfy the human fascination with large cats (especially ligers), they can never reproduce together to create a new breed of cat, and at present are only found in captivity, so can only rely on human intervention to keep them alive, as ligers particularly are thought to be far to big to hunt stealthily and bring down prey.
Your thoughts?
4 Comments so far
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They’re really cool, but completely unnatural and to answer your question, not a good evolution.
A “good” evolution involves and series of traits that enhances the chances of survival in a species which means improved physical traits, mental traits, and reproductive traits.
Mules would not exist except for humans either.
That said, I suspect most ligers and tions are the result of mistakes by zookeepers or morbid curiosity. “Freak” is too harsh a word, but no better one comes to me.
1,000-pound tigers have no problem hunting. Neither do 1500-pound Kodiak bears.
They are beautiful.
But you raise a very good point, it is wrong.
Messing with genes for selfish & superficial reasons & for no reason is wrong in general.
The sole reason that lions and tigers do not cross-breed in the wild is geographical seperation!. If there is an advantage to the cross-breeding then they will pass those genes to the next generation. Otherwise they willl die out!