Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Ligers ; The biggest big cat living in the world!

What exactly are ligers?

The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a female tiger (Panthera tigris). Thus, it has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tigon. It is the largest of all known extant felines. (Grabbed from wikipedia.com)

A liger is the result of breeding a male lion to a tigress. A tigon is the result of breeding a male tiger to a lioness. Since lions and tigers do not exist in the same areas, this is not something that happens in the wild. It is done in captivity by disreputable carnies to produce a freak that ignorant people will pay to see. These cats suffer from many birth defects and usually die young. Because ligers are usually larger than either parent, it also puts the tigress at great risk in carrying the young and may require C-section deliveries or kill her in the process. When the public quits paying to see these unfortunate creatures, the evil people responsible for breeding them will stop this inhumane practice. (grabbed from bigcatrescue.com)

In my opinion and knowledge, ligers is an animal whom its father is a male lion and its mother is a tiger.


Its attitudes and properties!

Ligers enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Ligers exist only in captivity because the habitats of the parental species do not overlap in the wild. Historically, when the Asiatic Lion was prolific, the territories of lions and tigers did overlap and there are legends of ligers existing in the wild. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tigons which tend to be about as large as a female tiger and is the cross between a male tiger and a lioness. (Grabbed from wikipedia)

Ligers usually are as large as their parents or bigger. They are social and they only exist in captivity.


Meet 'The Gang'

I listed some ligers that I saw in the net. Lets see who they are and their properties.

A Liger Named Patrick

 Perched on the edge of the Mojave Desert near Los Angeles , California , a lone liger, named Patrick, lives at Shambala Preserve, which bills itself as “a haven for endangered exotic big cats.”
“The interesting thing about these animals is that they have the best qualities of the tiger and the best of the lion,” said movie actress and conservationist Tippi Hedren, who has run Shambala since 1972. “Those qualities manifest themselves in the fact that they like to be in the water [a tiger trait] and are very social [a lion trait].”
Many of the cats at the 80-acre (32-hectare) sanctuary are orphans or castoffs from circuses, zoos, and private owners who could no longer care for the animals.
ShambalaPatrick arrived at the sanctuary seven years ago after federal authorities shutdown the roadside zoo in Illinois where he lived.
The 800-pound (360-kilogram) liger was kept in such a small cage that his hind-leg muscles had started to atrophy, said Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Patrick’s compound at Shambala allows him plenty of room for exercise. A stream runs through his compound, so his tiger half can play in the water or his lion half can stay out of it, whichever he chooses.

Tiger in the Hills

 Spirit of the Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in Spearfish, South Dakota , recently acquired a liger named Samson and 48 other big cats after federal authorities closed a Minnesota wildlife facility.
“Everyone who comes wants to see Samson,” said Trevor Smith, an environmental biologist and sanctuary board member.
The four-and-a-half-year-old hybrid tips the scales at over a thousand pounds (over 450 kilograms), and eats 30 to 50 pounds (14 to 23 kilograms) of raw meat every other day.
Liger at Big Cat Rescue
“Samson is really picky. He’ll only eat beef, elk, and venison,” Smith said. “We try and feed him chicken, like the other animals, but he won’t touch it. He’ll let it rot in the sun.”
The sanctuary-whose mission is to educate people about wild animals and emphasize that they don’t make good pets-has seen a surge in visitors since Samson’s arrival in June.
Much of the public’s curiosity about the liger stems from Napoleon Dynamite, Smith said.
Smith worries that Samson is “becoming too much of a freak show.”
If Samson had his way, Smith said, he’d sleep away the day inside, away from public view. 
“We’ve had a huge ethical debate at the sanctuary on whether or not we should lock him out of his shed,” Smith said. “But at the same time, he’s why the visitors are coming.”

Ligers: Untold Abuse Stories

A liger is the result of breeding a male lion to a tigress. A tigon is the result of breeding a male tiger to a lioness. Since lions and tigers do not exist in the same areas, this is not something that happens in the wild. It is done in captivity by disreputable carnies to produce a freak that ignorant people will pay to see. These cats suffer from many birth defects and usually die young. Because ligers are usually larger than either parent, it also puts the tigress at great risk in carrying the young and may require C-section deliveries or kill her in the process. When the public quits paying to see these unfortunate creatures, the evil people responsible for breeding them will stop this inhumane practice.
You can stop the abuse. Don’t support places, like T.I.G.E.R.S. and Jungle Island, that breed ligers. Bhagavan Antle who calls himself Doc Antle, the person you will most often see promoting this shameful practice, has gone to great lengths to stop us and the brave young girl who created the video at the bottom of the page, from letting you know the truth. Visit her YouTube site HERE and let her know you appreciate what she is doing to prevent the future breeding of ligers and tigons.


Ligers Has Siblings?

A tigon is the product of a male tiger and female lion. They receive growth inhibitor genes from both parents and so are smaller than either of them. They show much the same coloration of ligers except they sometimes have more distinct stripes. As with ligers the females are fertile whereas the males are sterile. They have the same vocalizations as liger, a sort of cross between lion and tiger. Ti-tigons speak tiger. Tigons are now rarer than ligers, but in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s tigons were more common.

Special thanks to Wikipedia.Com and http://bigcatrescue.org/liger-facts/ for showing us these information.


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