Explore Liger facts and amazing information about ligers – the hybrid of male lion and the tigress! Yes, Liger – the half lion and half tiger do really exist in our world.

There is a series of hybrid animals born from the parents with the same genus but of different species and really exist in our world. Liger is one of those hybrid animals. It is born by male Lion and female Tiger (tigress).

Being a cross breed of Lion and Tiger, Liger interestingly has the characteristics of both the parents.

Liger Facts:

• Liger has a lion like head.
• Liger has a lion like tail.
• Liger has faint striping and mottling like a tiger.
• Liger enjoys swimming as the tigers do.
• Liger is very sociable as the lions are.
• Liger is often believed the largest cat of the world.

Interesting Information About Ligers

Photo Source : Wikimedia

Information About Existence of Liger in Wild and Captivity

One of the mostly asked questions about ligers is that whether they exist in wild or do they exist only in captivity.

There are legends that the ligers were exist in wild in history. But in today’s world no liger is recorded in wild. Existing ligers are found only in captivity.

The reason is simple. Lions and tigers live within their own territories. In the past time, when both the lions and the tigers were found in large number on Earth, their territories did overlap. It was result the birth of Liger in wild.

In the present scenario, the natural habitats and territories of lions and tigers do not overlap in wild. Hence, the ligers do exist only in captivity.

Information About the Size and Weight of Liger

Once, when you get to know about the existence of liger in real world, your next query is surely about its appearance and physique.

The interesting fact about the physique of liger is that the liger is generally found larger than either parent species and hence liger is the largest cat of the world.

Generally male ligers reach a total length of 3 to 3.5 m. A notable example of the great size of liger is one of the ligers brought to the Zoological Gardens of Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1935. The male liger was a foot and a half (45 cm) taller than a full grown male lion at the shoulder.

The same is about the weight of the liger that the ligers are generally weighed more than the parent species. A full grown male lion generally weighs 400 lb, whereas the liger generally weighs 467 lb an average.

Hercules is the very popular liger came in limelight because recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest living cat on Earth, weighing over 410 kg (904 lb).

Jungle Island, an interactive animal theme park in Miami, is the home of Hercules.

Sinbad is another liger got the name and fame around the world because once shown on the National Geographic Channel. Weight of Sinbad is approximately same as of Hercules.

Information About Longevity of Liger

If you are more curious to know about the ligers, your next question must be about the longevity of liger. It is an obvious query about any hybrid animal. You always must be curious to know about the age of any hybrid animal in comparison to either parent species.

It is great news for you that the life of the Liger is good enough.

It is believed that Shasta, a female liger (ligress) was died at 24 years old. It was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on 14 May 1948.

Nook, a male liger, lived in Valley of the Kings animal sanctuary in Wisconsin died in 2007, at 21 years old. Hobbs, was the another male liger, in the Sierra Safari Zoo in Reno, Nevada, lived to 15 years of age. Hobbs died due to liver failure.

Generally, lions live for 10–14 years in the wild, while live longer than 20 years in captivity. On the other side, tigers generally lived for 20 to 26 years in captivity.

Information About Fertility of Liger

It is also one of the mostly asked questions about ligers. You may want to know that the ligers can produce offspring or not.

Kiara is a “liliger” born in September 2012, in the Russian Novosibirsk Zoo, which is the offspring of a liger mother and a lion father. Later on, three more female liligers took birth from the parents of Kiara on May 16, 2013.

Recently, the birth of first Liliger in the United States was announced by the Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park in Wynnewood at 6:18 am on November 29, 2013 from the male Lion named Simba and a female Liger named Akara.

These are the best answers about the fertility of ligers.

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Author: Sonia Goyal