The curious liger cub who struck up an unlikely friendship with dolphins

Daily Mail ^ | Jul 28, 2009 | Julian Gavaghan

[decimon]

A liger cub enjoys an unlikely encounter with three dolphins in these amazing photos taken at a safari park.

The six-week-old cat – the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger – and the trio of aquatic mammals were equally fascinated by each other.

Nose to the glass at one point, the liger came face-to-face with the dolphins at Shenzhen Safari Park in Southern China, bordering Hong Kong.

[Melpomene]

I read that ligers don’t have the hormone that triggers the body to stop growing, and they basically grow to death.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The Chinese are doing an incredibly efficient job of turning the world’s remaining tigers into folk-medicine aphrodisiacs and cures for impotency. For a nation of over a billion, Chinese men seem inordinately concerned with getting in the mood. It would be nice if they’d put a little effort into raising some pure-blooded tigers to replace those they’ve wiped out instead of creating hybrids of tigers and lions.

[definitelynotaliberal]

They’ve stopped wiping them out. Now, they’re doing what everybody else is doing - Viagra.

[Slings and Arrows]

He's gonna be a BIG boy!

[definitelynotaliberal]

Since you’ve read about them, I’ll ask you. Any idea what their mating habits are? I guess it matters less in a zoo, but in the wild, lions set up harems and tigers are solitary.

[Monkey Face]

Awwwww...

[mad_as_he$$]

Wow that is the largest collection of clean water in China.

[Ready4Freddy]

Lion father, tiger mother.

[kalee]

Great pictures at the link

[Andyman]

The bottom pic in the article has been ‘shopped. The lighting is slightly different and there is a “ring” around the top of the liger’s head as well as the stone edge on the right, and in all the other pics the glass terminates in a blue concrete lip where it meets the glass.

[TheOldLady]

Goodness gracious! Thanks for the link. Beautiful animals, and they're not all the same. I really like this one:

[RichInOC]

I CAN HAS TARTR SOSS?

[TheOldLady]

Okay. It's all over. My heart is his:

[Slings and Arrows]

You’re welcome, and better keep that fellow away from the catnip.

[SZonian]

So envirowhackos will bitch and moan about genetic engineering in food so that it will grow in places it normally wouldn’t so people can eat but don’t have any problems with cross breeding cats. K

SZ

[Future Snake Eater]

Here's a close-up:

[CAluvdubya]

They're laughing now but just wait a couple of months and then we'll see who's laughing!.....

[Clemenza]

My favorite animal, along with the bald eagle.

[definitelynotaliberal]

That is a pretty animal, but what God has made, let man not put asunder. A tiger, with it’s yellow-orange coat with brown-black stripes, is so much prettier than this cat with his pale complexion and pale stripes. It’s all too taupe.

[TexasBeth]

Cute picture....Made me wonder where my kitten was. This is what's happening under my desk right now.