The mysterious predator of tigers - a hybrid from the family of large cats, is very rare, in the world there are only a few dozen individuals. This amazing creature, combining the characteristics of two predators, first became known in the XVIII century. Large zoos were engaged in the breeding of such individuals in the past, but at present, such activities are not encouraged by conservationists.
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Description of the hybrid tiger and lioness
Tigers or tigons, tigons, tiglons - all such hybrids in appearance look more like lions than tigers:
- They are smaller in size than lions, have pale stripes on the body, not very large mane.
- In some adult males, it is completely absent.
- On the legs and head of animals, the bands are more noticeable.
- The tail is long, with a tassel at the end.
- Male tigons are sterile, and females can have cubs.
Graceful animals possess high intelligence and weak immunity (captivity affects them). Cubs rarely survive, and nothing is known about the maximum age of adults. Small tigons are born spotted, like cubs, or striped and blue-eyed, like cubs.
The offspring of a female tigon will be like a father - a tiger or a lion. According to scientists, such animals, unlike ligers, which are descendants of lions and tigers, can survive in natural habitats. They have the ability to run fast and endurance. Of course, it would never occur to anyone to let them out, because they bring profit to zoos.
Tigerwolf Lifestyle
Tigons are much less common than ligers. This is due to the behavior of predators in the mating season. Lions are very active and ready to mate at any time. Tigers, on the contrary, do not understand the signals that the female lioness gives.
If the offspring is still born, it rarely survives. Pathologies of the development of cubs are possible, including birth before the due date. Raising such a baby, even if he was healthy, is not easy - the female does not have enough milk, and zoo employees have to feed the baby with milk formula from a bottle.
The birth of an unusual beast attracts a lot of people to the zoo or circus, where this event took place. The development of interspecific hybrids is more used to increase profits than is beneficial for animals. Tigers living in zoos were not seen in aggression towards humans. They, like their parents, eat mainly raw meat, during the day they prefer to sleep in shelter, getting out of it during feeding hours, in the morning or in the evening.
What natural zone does the animal live in?
The first hybrid of a tiger and a lioness was born in one of the zoos several centuries ago. Usually tigons were born if they kept tiger cubs and lions together, and, having matured, they could form pairs. Adult animals are wary of each other, and the chances of offspring from combining different species are very small.
In nature, the modern habitats of tigers and lions do not intersect; they cannot meet to create a common pair and give birth to offspring. In the Pleistocene era, which ended about 11 thousand years ago, Europe and Siberia were inhabited by a predator, now extinct, which they call tigrolev. He was the largest feline of all time. Scientists have been arguing for a long time whether this animal belongs to lions or tigers, and, through genetic analysis, concluded that the extinct predator was a lion. He inhabited all of northern Eurasia, and by land, connecting at that time Chukotka and Alaska, until he reached the American continent.
Causes of Gigantism and Dwarfism
It is known that the offspring of a tigress and a lion, called ligers, reaches gigantic proportions, and grows until the end of their lives. An adult can weigh 450 kg, which is two times the body weight of each of its parents. Scientists attribute this to the fact that the cub of a lion and a tigress at birth receives the father’s genes that promote growth, and the mother’s genes, which slightly inhibit this process.
In contrast, tigers are always smaller than both a lion and a tiger. The maximum body weight of an adult animal is 150 kg. Unlike another species, this predator can survive in the wild, as it has all its senses well developed, and its running speed is close to 70 km / h. The small size of the hybrid is also explained at the genetics level. Differences they receive by inheritance at birth. The growth promoting gene is less active in the tiger than in the lion. In a lioness, the genes responsible for growth inhibition are active during the period of offspring development.
Interesting Facts
The world leader in the number of ligers is China. In the Hainan Zoobotanical Garden, 12 hybrid individuals were obtained in 5 years. In order to attract visitors, the zoo management organizes contests for assigning nicknames to unusual predators. And the real miracle of nature is the four white ligers that live in South Carolina. Their parents are the white tigress Saraswati and the lion Ivory.
On the territory of Russia it is known about a tigon from a safari park in Volgograd. He was born in 2009 from the lioness Anna and the tiger Raj. The cub was named in honor of King of Pop Michael Jackson. The mother of the lioness did not have enough milk, so they fed the baby goat milk from the bottle. At the age of several months, the animal made friends with the Rottweiler, played and ate with it from the same bowl. For an unusual predator, they took a huge glass aviary with trees and a pool.
Visitors to the Taigan safari park in Crimea could see what tigers looked like. This animal named Casimir resembled a lion without a mane, but with softer hair, without spots and stripes. He had a closed, unsociable character. No one knew how old he was, because the beast got into the zoo by accident.He was confiscated for ill-treatment by a private person and brought from the Kharkov region to the Crimea. Tigrolev evoked universal sympathy; he was kept in an open safari among adult lions. For unknown reasons, Casimir fell ill, the treatment did not help, and the unfortunate died.
Tigers, like ligers, cause curiosity and pity. Born in captivity, they are deprived of the opportunity to live a full life, to hunt independently and create a family. Animals subordinate to human will are doomed to undeserved suffering for the entertainment of zoo visitors.
