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!

[beebuster2000]

I like my pic better

[null and void]

DAMM STRAIGHT!!!

It is arguably the world's best continuing education program.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

[bootless]

Wow! Sign him up for the Zot Patrol!

[Redcloak]

It would be handy around here for those especially pesky trolls!

...but where would we get a Viking helmet that big?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Viking Kitty recruitment material?

Time for an upgrade?

[bannie]

It's not gonna' STOP???

(mumbles something about "playing with fire")

[stands2reason]

Yep. All those dominant genes.

[LasVegasMac]

Here kitty kitty kitty!

Wow.

LVM

[null and void]

Ah! That explains why the other cats they raise are all normal size.

[TheOtherOne]

Now that's a TEXAS-SIZED kitty.

[DuncanWaring]

On a typical day he will devour 200 lb of meat,...

Consumes 20% of its body-weight every day? Sounds like a bit of a stretch.

The equivalent of a 150-lb human eating 30 pounds of meat a day. Tour de France racer don't eat that much.

[LexBaird]

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

There was a liger at the Salt Lake City zoo in the 60's. It was infertile. I would assume ligers are mules.

[Jasper]

"Wow! Sign him up for the Zot Patrol!"

No doubt!
That kitty is the new "King of Zot!"

/jasper

[LibFreeOrDie]

Hybrid vigor.

[righttackle44]

Quick! Somebody run from him and see if he chases you.

[Vicomte13]

And when you think about how much this VERY IMPRESSIVE cat has to eat to stay alive, you realize why all those gigantic ancient carnivores got smaller with time.

Interesting that these folks in the pictures are obviously treating this one like a PET. Watch lion or tiger trainers, and even when they're kidding around with their animals, there's an incredible professionalism there.
These folks in the picture have a different relationship with this beast.
There is no fear in those faces. This is their kitten, their pet. And the liger doesn't have that feral look at trained tigers and lions do. They still look like wild animals. This one has the eyes that a pet gets, that strange docility in it.
But it's still a 1000 point 10 foot long MONSTER.
And I still remember how my kitty would sometimes get a little testy and throw a claw at me from behind a chair.
Trouble with a 1000 pound MONSTER with three inch claws is that a quick playful bat-in-passing from this pet will put you in the hospital.

[bannie]

Have Mikey do it. He'll do anything.

[cyborg]

ping