Worlds first Liliger

World's first Liliger

Leaving aside the issue of whether such things ought to be produced, Tippi Hedren [accidentally] bred aTi-tigon [or was it a Li-tigon?] years ago. I think it's fairly well established that, while male Lion x Tiger hybrids [either way] are sterile, the females have at least limited fertility. I believe horse x donkey hybrids are the same [although the picture here would be complicated by the males usually being gelded].
 
Nowhere close to being the worlds first. Just wishful thinking on the part of a Russian zoo trying to drum up media attention for an animal they should never have produced.

As mentioned above, Shambala Preserve (California, USA) had one many, many years ago (perhaps 30 years?). GW Exotic Park (Oklahoma, USA) has at least one currently.

EDIT - I am just counting second generation, whether the parent mated with the liger is a lion or tiger. It is possible that the two I referenced both had tigers as the father and that the one in Russia may indeed be the first one with a lion as father?
 
I have read of brown bears mating with polar bears in the wild, but have there been reports of tigers mating successfully with lions in the wild - in India for example?
 
Hallo Nanoboy

October's BBC Wildlife has an article about animal hybrids and suggests that lions and tigers formed hybirds when their ranges overlapped in Asia.
 
As far as I know, lions and tigers have never bred in the wild. Brown and polar bears are a rather odd scenario though. Genetically, polar bears are just one sub population of the brown bear, and some taxonomists can make the argument that they are not even a valid species. In fact, I was having this very discussion the other day with a friend. When I found the papers on the genetics of brown and polar bears it was rather striking. if we accept that the polar bear is a valid species (which I'm sure everyone on here does), then we have to accept that there are about 4 species of brown bears.
 
I've read the same thing about polar bears and brown bears. Some races of brown bears are more closely related to polar bears than they are to some other races of brown bear. Logically, there should either be a few species of brown bear or the polar bear should be included as a type of brown bear. It just goes to show how ideas change with time. I remember when the polar bear was placed in a separate genus (Thalarctos) from the brown bear (Ursus). But then, I also remember trying to convince my mother that the giant panda wasn't a black-and-white bear, but was a member of the raccoon family. This was also the time when I tried to convince her that the koala was a member of the phlanger family (Phalangeridae) and was not related to the wombats, but there is some controversy today about whether koalas and wombats are related to each other.
 
nanoboy said:
but have there been reports of tigers mating successfully with lions in the wild - in India for example?
Click to expand...

Not in modern times anyway - the distribution range of Tigers and the Asian Lions in India are completely seperate nowadays. Lions lives in semi-arid Thorn forest, no Tigers anywhere for hundreds of miles.
 
I agree that the ranges of lions and tigers haven't overlapped for a long time. I hadn't heard of hybrids in the wild until I read Stuart Blackman's article on page 92 of the October issue of BBC Wildlife. He states "Ligers and tigrons were reportedly born in the wild when the parent species' ranges overlapped in Asia. Polar bears and grizzlies are apparently colour-blind when it comes to love. The European edible frog is a naturally occurring hybrid between the pool frog and marsh frog". I agree with the second sentence as there are several cases of polar bear-brown bear hybrids. The first sentence seems feasible as the lion and tiger had overlapping ranges many centuries ago, although there is usually a mechanism to stop closely related species mating in their area of overlap. I always thought the edible frog was a species in its own right, so I'm surprised if it is a hybrid.
 
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