Ten foot tall "LIGER" - part lion; part tiger; weighs half a ton and is still growing!

Email | MAY 27, 2005 | Unknown

[CHARLITE]

How's this for size?

The 10ft Liger who's still growing...

He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic creation from Hollywood. But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood - as he proves every time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar. Part lion, part tiger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one,standing 10ft tall on his back legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is the largest of all the cat species.

On a typical day he will devour 200 lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100lb at a single setting. At just three years old, Hercules already weighs half a ton.

He is the accidental result of two enormous big cats living close together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already dwarfs both his parents. "Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger."

50mph runner... Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia. But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II.

Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion mother. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical characteristics of the tiger. They have become famous cross-breed.

Look at the size of the head on this thing!

Now that's SOME cat!

[SquirrelKing]

SWEET!

[nuconvert]

extra large pong

[razoroccam]

That woman must be quite brave, or stupid, or both to keep her head that close to the Liger's.

Anyone know if Ligers are fertile? Or are they like mules?

[Miss Marple]

How interesting! I wonder if the cross between the two breeds has brought up giantism, a comman characteristic in late Paleocene mammals.

[bannie]

Why so big???

1+1 = 2 instead of (1+1)/2 ?

[MHGinTN]

Wow, you'd need a swimming pool for a catbox to keep him inside! And he eats how much every day?... How much does Barbara Catbox weigh?

[Felis_irritable]

"Look at the size of the head on this thing!"

Oh yeah, the liger caught *my* eye first in that photo...

[null and void]

Hybrid vigor.

[Dog Gone]

Dang, that's a big kitty, and with an appetite of 200 lbs per day, unlikely to become a popular pet.

[Finny]

Quoth Warner Bros. bully bulldog Spike:

"B-b-b-b-big c-c-c-c-cat ..."

[nuconvert]

super-sized cat pong

[Diddle E. Squat]

Lions and tigers and apparently bear-skin rugs.

Oh my!

[bannie]

That's why I come in here: Best classroom in the world.

Thank you!

[FReepaholic]

Deb: What are you drawing?
Napoleon Dynamite: A liger.
Deb: What's a liger?
Napoleon Dynamite: It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Dang, that's a big kitty, and with an appetite of 200 lbs per day, unlikely to become a popular pet.

...here. But in areas with overpopulation...

[Swanks]

Liger could eat Princess there and be hungry again by noontime.

[Redcloak]

In tigers, the gene for growth regulation is supplied by the male. In lions, it's from the female. Since this animal has a tiger for a mother and a lion for a father, it didn't get the gene from either parent. (Heard this on Discovery the other day.)

[rdb3]

That kitty seems very domesticated.

[investigateworld]

Viking Kitty recruitment material?