A liger is a hybrid of a male lion and a female tiger (tigress). It is similar to the hybrid tigon yet distinct from it. There are very interesting facts that you should know about these amazing hybrids.
Ligers Facts
1. THEY ARE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CATS.
An average Liger weighs more than an adult tiger or lion does. A male lion cub usually weighs about 1.5 kg at birth and grows to about 190 kg while a female tiger has a weight of about 780 – 1600 grams at birth and grows to a weight of about 65 – 170 kg. Ligers, on the other hand, are usually huge at birth and gain about a pound every day ultimately reaching about 900 kg at their 4-year-old growth maturity.
2. THEY ARE VERY GOOD SWIMMERS
It is a known fact that lions are hydrophobic; they practically hate water and are therefore terrible swimmers. Tigers, on the other hand, are perfect swimmers and love to show off their swimming ‘super’ powers. Luckily, genetics smiled down on this hybrid breed of the male lion and tigress and endued them with the swimming power of the tigers. Ligers are amazing swimmers.
3. LIGERS ROAR TOO
Like father, like child! Not all big cats can roar. Only the jaguar, lion, leopard and tiger can produce this full, deep and prolonged cry. However, the greatest and most frightening roars of all time come from the lions. The ligers most times roar just like their father probably pointing to their inheriting the lion’s larynx which is the longest of all big cats. Well, there are also times when the roar of a liger sounds like that of a tiger.
4. LIGERS HAVE AMAZING SPEED
The lion may not be the fastest animal with its speed of 80km/h but it will surely outrun both a tiger (49- 65 km/h) and the fastest human being (45km in theory) in a race. Ligers have this same speed as the lion. So beware of lions, beware of ligers!
5. THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF LIGERS
The average lifespan of a wild lion is 10 – 14 years but in captivity, the lion can live for about 20 years. The tiger also lives an average of 10 – 15 years in the wild and about 26 years in captivity. Not unexpectedly, ligers have been estimated to have an average lifespan of 10 – 13 years in the wild and about 18 – 24 years in captivity. Also, as is common in most hybrids, ligers have a high chance of being born with birth defects and/ or developing cancer. This could further reduce their lifespan.
6. THERE ARE NO LIGERS IN THE WILD
Well, the deal is lions are mostly found in the wild in Africa while tigers live in the wild in Asia. So you see, these two big cats hardly ever meet! How then can the lion mate with the tigress? The liger is a kind of forced experimental mating process carried out in the enclosure. However, there are legends of the Asiatic lion coexisting with the Bengal tiger in India and the now extinct Caspian tiger in Iraq and Persia.
7. THE BIRTH OF A LIGER
Most times, the birth of a liger is very traumatic for its tigress mother. It is so huge that it weighs her down and a cesarean section has to be carried out to bring out the cub. This is often by postpartum depression for the mother who doesn’t understand her ‘strange’ child.
8. THE APPEARANCE
A liger bears a mix of its parents’ physical attributes, although mostly the father’s. On the body, it has faint mottling and stripping and has a mane. Also, a liger has a head that looks almost like a lion’s although much wider. Its tail also resembles a lion’s more than a tiger’s.
See Also: Tigon Facts: 11 Things You Didn’t Know About These Tiger-Lions
9. THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CAT
The world’s biggest cat is Hercules, named after the Roman god and hero. He lives in South Carolina at the Myrtle Beach preserve. Towards the end of the year 2013, his size was a gigantic 922 kg with a height of 131 inches, way bigger than both of his parents. The cat whose breeding was said to be a complete accident entered the Guinness World Records in 2014.
10. FERTILITY
All male ligers are sterile, only the females (ligress) are capable of reproduction with either a male lion or tiger. Their offsprings are usually liligers or tiligers which are smaller in size than the ligers but bigger than the average tiger or lion.
11. NUMBER ONE
The first known liger was reported in India in the early 19th century.
