The liger is produced from an amorous encounter between a male lion and a tigress, and they’re the biggest extant cats in the universe. They don’t happen outside of captivity very often as lions and tigers have different terrain preferences, but on occasion, in a zoo situation one can be produced. And they are MONSTERS.
The liger can grow to be twice the size of its parents. However, if you do it the other way round i.e. mix a lioness and male tiger, you get a tigon, these are rarer and only ever reach about the same size as a female tiger. So there’s some weird genetic jazz going on somewhere along the line.
The liger enjoys swimming, like a tiger, and is sociable like a lion. A mixed bag. They really are impressive looking aren’t they? Look at the size of his head??:
The liger in the news today is called Hercules, he’s about 10 feet long and weighs 922 pounds (which is about the same weight as 1500 cans of beer if that helps?). Pretty darned mega, and now he is the official record holder for biggest cat alive today.
