Lion and Tiger Hybrids
A liger is the offspring between a male lion and a female tiger. It looks like a giant lion with diffused stripes. Ligers are enormous because a male lion has a growth gene and the female (lioness) has a growth inhibitor, but the female tiger has no growth inhibitor. The liger is the largest feline hybrid, but the Siberian tiger is the largest species.
A tiglon is the hybrid of a male tiger and a female lion. The tiglon is not as common as the converse hybrid, the liger. Contrary to some beliefs, the tiglon ends up smaller than either parent, because male tigers and female lionesses have a growth inhibitor. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tiglons were more common than ligers.
A liliger is the offspring of a liger and a lion. The only known liliger is a cub named Kiara. Liligers are very rare.
Read more about this topic: Panthera Hybrid
Famous quotes containing the words lion and, lion and/or tiger:
“Auld Noah was at hame wi’ them a’,
The lion and the lamb,
Pair by pair they entered the Ark
And he took them as they cam’.”
—Hugh MacDiarmid (1892–1978)
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”
—Bible: Hebrew Isaiah 11:6.
“Iknowwhata mother tiger does when she’s upset. She eats her young.”
—Guy Trosper, U.S. screenwriter, and John Frankenheimer. Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster)