THE ULTIMATE CAT

                                           THE LIGER

       

                                                        

                                                        Nature has witnessed a lot of accidents. Some of those accidents have even led to excellent discoveries. One such accident caused in captivity is the LIGER. This huge cat is the hybrid offspring produced by a male lion and a female tiger. Thus the liger is produced bu parents of the same GENUS but different SPECIES. Having an average length of 10 ft or more and a huge body weighing almost 300 kilograms in average, this giant beast is the largest of all known felines. HERCULES, a male liger trained by Dr.Bhagavan Antle is recognized by GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS as the largest living cat on earth. Hercules weighed an enormous 408.25 kg when he was just 3 years old.

                                                 

                                                         Dr.Antle with his trained liger.

                                            The liger owes its huge size to the absence of size restricting genes in both its parents ( Male lion and a tigress), making it grow extremely larger than both parents. Though ligers are born small, they can undergo rapid growth and easily reach a length of 10 ft, which is a record for tigers and lions. The liger also shares many traits and behaviors of its parents. For example, ligers are sociable like a lion and it also loves getting in the water, which is a tiger trait. As far as appearance goes, the liger looks like a huge lion with pale stripes. Some may also inherit some spots from the lion side. The fur of a liger is tawny or gold like a lion with tiger like stripes. The colour of stripes may vary from dark black to pale brown.

                                            Although ligers maybe bred in captivity with a lion and tiger, two ligers can't be mated. This is because most ligers are sterile. Although some females have been known to be fertile, no fertile ligers have been recorded, which makes it impossible for liger breeding. One of the other important questions about the liger is if they could survive in the wild. The answer is simple, NO. The size of the liger is one of its huge disadvantages. Such a size requires a huge load of food and space which makes its survival difficult. It also lacks the perfect stealth, which is a major weapon in the wild cats' hunting.

                                                                                                          

                                          Scientists have different opinions regarding the breeding of ligers. Some claim that it is unethical to go against the laws of nature, while some claim that breeding ligers is perfectly normal.there are lots of myths regarding ligers. One of the common beliefs is that hybrid species like ligers have an extremely short life span. But this has been proved wrong by many scientists, especially Dr.Antle. Shasta, a ligress (female liger) was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on 14 May 1948 and died in 1972 at age 24. The 1973 Guinness World Records reported an 18-year-old, 798 kg (1,759 lb) male liger living at Bloemfontein Zoological Gardens, South Africa in 1888 (this is not accurate as the zoo opened in 1920), (there are claims the liger was 756 lbs. and the year was actually 1953). Valley of the Kings animal sanctuary in Wisconsin had a male liger named Nook who weighed around 550 kg (1,213 lb), and died in 2007, at 21 years old. Hobbs, a male liger at the Sierra Safari Zoo in Reno, Nevada, lived to almost 15 years of age before succumbing to liver failure and weighed in at 410 kilograms (900 lb).

                                                                            

                                                                                                                                       - Vignesh CV.