HYBRIDS - Panthera Leo x Panthera Tigris, a Breakthrough In Animal Life and Nature, and also the Largest Cat In the World
Hybrids don't only exist in movies! Am pretty sure that a certain percentage of people in the World would have seen the series "The Originals'' and I bet your favorite character would be Niklaus Mikaelson, the Hybrid, part wolf-part vampire, always terrorizing the quarter, claiming to be king, pretty awesome right?
Flickr: Panthera Leo x Panthera Tigris at Prince William county Fair 2014, image by Stephen Little
However, Hybrids aren’t just mere fictions but they are indeed real and though there aren’t any part wolf-part vampires anymore, there are certain species that exist and have the tendency to create hybrids e.g. Lions, Tigers, Bison, Domestic cat, zebra etc.
Hybrids, as you may know, exists due to interbreeding, crossbreeding between animals and plants. When animals from species that are related mate, they tend to form offsprings called Hybrids, these offsprings can display certain amounts of mixed traits like color, skin, and nature. Hybrids may not be a cause of nature but it is however captivating, and to achieve this captivating act, two animals from diverse species, but similar genus must be crossed and the result is a Hybrid.
Permit me to sound like our highly esteemed distilled, Welcome to the first issue/ edition on Hybrids :)
Today, we will look into two different species that have been crossed to form a particular animal and then we go into the woods to take pictures of this particular hybrid (don’t be scared, it's going to be fun) know as Panthera Leo x Panthera Tigris.
We will also look into traits and qualities that this hybrid possesses, and then seek to find reasons why hybridization kicked in between these species.
Ligers; An Expressive Insight
With respect to our very own king of the jungle, the Lion and the Queen of the Jungle, the Tigress, the existence of Ligers are simply the crossings of these two royalties of the jungle.
Panthera Leo, more oftenly referred to as Lion, is as we all know the King of the Jungle, one of the strongest and largest of the felines, second only in size to the Siberian tigers. If you had encountered a Loin in the woods then you would have met a formidable opponent and a largely built cat of the Felidae.
Panthera Tigris, the largest cat as you may well know, popularly referred to as Tigers. They are the only thing standing in the way of the Lions from being the biggest cat in the world. However, these two species had to come to a certain conclusion to produce what you might know as Ligers.
The Liger
Basically, a Liger is a Hybrid offspring of a male Lion and a female tiger. The liger has it's parents in the same genus but of different species. It is the largest of all known extant species, possessing characteristic traits of both tiger and lion simultaneously. Ligers are very social in nature that would mean they inherited this trait from the Panthera Leo and at the same time they enjoy swimming which comes from the Panthera Tigris. Ligers don't just exist inform of toys or cartoon characters, it may intrest you to know that they exist and they might just be lurking around one zoo close to you.
Scientifically, there isn’t any name given to the ligers but there has been some breakthrough in naming the ligers. It's name is derived from the first two letters of the word Lion ''Li'' and the last four letters of the name Tiger ''gers'', bringing these separate letters together it forms the name ''Ligers'' and its scientific name can be written as Panthera Leo x Panthera Tigris which literally translate to Lion and Tiger.
Ligers possess the strength of a lion and the speed of a tiger. Now combine these two things together and imagine how fascinating it would be, how it would look; it is said that a liger can run up to 50mph. However, ligers look a lot like lions and share more traits with the lions than the tigers and according to history, they date back to the 18th century in India, when a female tigress was crossed with a male Lion in other to reproduce three(3) Liger cubs. Supervised under the British National in India in the year 1799, it was believed that the cubs were presented to Queen Victoria at the time, the British were the ones who first initiated the liger Breeding program during India's colonization. Later in the 18th-19th century, more liger cubs were produced in a zoo somewhere in South Africa in the year 1825 and In 1935, Four ligers were reared in Zoological Gardens in Bloemfontein in South Africa.
How Big Are They And How Long Can They Live?
Ligers are very big cats and are even referred to as the largest in the world. They are usually the size of both parents put together making them as big as a horse and really built cats, not forgetting tall. With a growth rate of 1kg per second daily, Ligers can weigh up to 165 kg in a year and invariably, at three years they can weigh over 350 kg.
The males reach a total length of 3-3.7m, which would make them a rival with even the large male lions and tigers in length, further study has shown that imprinted genes might be the reason for the large size of ligers. Female Ligers also attain notable heights and great size, weighing about 350 kg approximately. A popular liger, recorded in the Guinness book of records in Miami named Hercules, is known to be the biggest cat in the world weighing over 420kg. However, Nook was also a liger who died in the year 2007 weighing over 550kg.
Ligers have a very long lasting life span and can live up to about 25 years if not more, although there are certain speculations that ligers don’t live very long but consider the fact that an average lion can live up to about to about 20 years in captivity and 15 years in the wild likewise the tigers, who even live for more than 20 years in proper captivity. Now having all of this in mind do you think that its offspring would live any less? Ligers can grow and live up to about 11 to 13 years in the wild and approximately 25 years in captivity. Ligers are said to be about the same size as the now extinct Smilodon Populator and the prehistoric American dogs.
Appearances And Colour
Ligers are categorized by a tiger-like striped pattern that is faint on a lion-like ochre (tawny) background.
Most ligers inherit from their lion parent, rose-like formations that are found in patches on the fur. These markings vary in colour, sometimes dark, sometimes dark brown and often sandy, most times the background colour might be sandy, tawny or golden. The underparts of a liger are often pale white and its general appearance depends on the gene interaction in the offspring and also the subspecies of the parents. If you had a white tiger captive and a lion locked out somewhere, you could cross these species together and the result would be a very white paled, stripe-less liger(or in most cases golden).
Sterile or Fertile?
More often than most, people who don’t really support the existence of ligers tend to conclude at the very lack of evidence that ligers are sterile and are unable to reproduce.
Unfortunately, Ligers are indeed fertile and able to reproduce, the female ligers are fertile and can reproduce either by mating with a lion or a tiger on the other hand Male ligers haven’t been involved in any mating to transfer genes but various Lab tests has shown that Male Ligers have a certain high level of testosterone resident in their bodies which will only be meaningful if the genes can be transferred, so it's safe to support the notion that male Ligers are sterile. Though many hybrids are infertile but Liger females and some other female hybrids are not, they reproduce effectively.
Population
Throughout history, Ligers have been rare. As of 2017, the Liger population was estimated to be approximately 100 in the world although the majority are found in the USA. The biggest population of Ligers in captivity are about 40 in the USA, China is often referred to as the second spot for liger breeding with a population of 20 ligers. In some countries, Liger breeding is, in fact, illegal but countries like Germany, Russia, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico, and Indonesia all have legal permits to breed Ligers, so the rest of the Liger population is scattered around these countries.
Behaviour And Feeding
Ligers are known to possess a uniquely mild character, and are carnivorous in nature.
They can consume up to 110 pounds in one meal which makes them the only kind of carnivore with such appetite. After the Cheetah, they are the fastest runners known to man, their huge body structure helps them cover more grounds and they can run up to 90km/h at a stretch. Ligers tend to remain peaceful and calm, unlike the lion and tiger they do not become violent as they grow older. Ligers love to swim but sometimes they do not love the water, this is a trait passed down from the Lion and more importantly, despite the facts that Ligers are fascinating they only exist and occur in captivity.
On Average, Ligers consume 20 lbs of meat per day either chicken or beef, this is as a result of their nature and how big they are and sometimes they even eat up to 100lbs in a single blow. However, If Ligers were to occur in the wild, their meal or diet would almost be the same as that of their parent species. Preys like cattle, deer and wild bear, would have been preferred but Ligers cannot be found in the wild so they only rely on what humans feed them.
What Led To This Breakthrough?
It was believed that a certain group of lions did coexist together with the Tigers and during this period, these two distinct species had to come together to strike a balance which led to the production of ligers in the 18th century. Scientist had discovered that male Lions could live and mate with female tigers, so a male lion was crossed with a female tiger which then reproduced 3 liger cubs as stated earlier.
Putting It All Together
It's amazing to know that some creatures which we least thought would exist are indeed existing and the fact that sometimes we get to find out these things is what makes it more interesting and fun. Ligers were first introduced in a movie titled Napoleon Dynamite, and Napoleon's favorite creature was the Liger.
Flickr Image by Chris: The Great Hercules
If you weren’t aware that hybrids exist not only in movies then I guess you are aware now and you can imagine what kind of creatures exist and will exist through crossbreeding, I choose to refer to it as a breakthrough in nature and animal biology. With this, I will end it for today.
Wish to know more about cool animals that crossed to form way more cooler animals, join me as we unravel these mysterious creatures every weekend on HYBRIDS, hope this was fun for you? 😖
References
Panthera Leo x Panthera Tigris
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