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Ten foot tall "LIGER" - part lion; part tiger; weighs half a ton and is still growing!
Email | MAY 27, 2005 | Unknown

Posted on 05/27/2005 4:44:50 PM PDT by 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!


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: animals; breed; liger; liontiger; mixed
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To: CHARLITE
"The reason that they are called a liger is because the father was a lion and the mother was a tiger. If the situation was reversed and the mother was a lion and the father was a tiger, he would be called a tigon, and would be a dwarf instead of a giant. A fully grown tigon is usually less that 350lbs. Ligers are not sterile, and they can reproduce."





http://www.tigers-animal-actors.com/about/liger/liger.html
41 posted on 05/27/2005 5:05:32 PM PDT by visualops (visualops.com)
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To: CHARLITE

Loan him to the Minutemen for the border patrol.


42 posted on 05/27/2005 5:06:17 PM PDT by NorseWood
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To: SeaDragon


43 posted on 05/27/2005 5:06:29 PM PDT by RikaStrom (The number one rule of the Kama Sutra is that you both be on the same page.../Exeter 051705)
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To: beebuster2000

the chick up top could be my pet kitty any day.
what are they doing? some kind of vegas magic show?


44 posted on 05/27/2005 5:07:29 PM PDT by Rakkasan1 (The MRS wanted to go to an expensive place to eat so I took her to the gas station.)
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To: Diddle E. Squat

http://www.spectatornews.com/media/paper218/news/2005/05/02/Showcase/Ligers.And.Tigons.And.Bears.oh.My-945536.shtml

Ligers and tigons and bears, 'Oh my'
Now-famous hybrid not truly bred for skills in magic
By Tom Ebnet
Published: Monday, May 2, 2005

My hope is that the majority of you reading this can determine the topic at hand from the obscure title - yep, ligers. My original intent for this article was to inform the general population at UW-Eau Claire that ligers, a cross between a male lion and female tiger, actually exist and the petty office and classroom arguments can cease.

The intent came shortly after the recent explosion of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite," which includes a scene concerning ligers.

The concept of ligers does seem foreign to most, and I must admit that when I first heard the term I was rather skeptical.

Chris Floyd, assistant professor and vertebrate zoologist in our biology department, also confessed, "I had just recently heard of their existence."

Floyd said he also plans to include ligers in his future mammalogy classes.

With the notion that ligers are real, and after speaking with zookeepers in Nevada and a few others, I now have much more information to divulge and the scoop on a male liger that resides at the Sierra Safari Zoo in Reno, Nev.

First, let's get the terms for the hybrids established. A male lion and a female tiger (tigress) produce a liger, if it's male, and a ligress if female. A male tiger and a female lion (lioness) produce a tigon. If these hybrids successfully mate with lions or tigers, which is extremely rare due to the seemingly inherent sterility that occurs with hybridization, li-ligers, ti-ligers, li-tigons and ti-tigons are the result.

It is estimated that only 20 to 30 ligers exist worldwide; this is because their arrival usually happens by chance in captivity. Most zookeepers and caretakers choose not to crossbreed out of respect, and the zoological demand has also stopped, however, limited cases of for-profit-crossbreeding are suspected. The low number of such cats is also due to the distance between lions and tigers' natural habitats and instinctual inhibitions that prevent them from mating in the wild.

However, when lions and tigers do successfully mate, the result is truly splendiferous. Such is the case with Hobbs, a 13-year-old liger known for his stature and tame temperament.

"If you were to see him, you would see a beautiful, magnificent animal," said Lori Acordagoitia, staff member at the Sierra Safari Zoo.

Hobbs measures more than 10 feet tall when on his hindquarters and weighs in at more than 900 pounds, but this, of course is after his diet, in which he lost 400 pounds. Even after acknowledging the weight-loss, one feels inclined to say, "Damn, that is one large kitty." And you would be correct in saying so because Hobbs weighs twice as much as the largest cat, the male Siberian tiger, whereas tigons are much more similar in size to that of tigers.

If that's not impressive, just consider the idea that Hobbs was thought of as the runt when he and his brother were born, and that he's working with reduced amounts of testosterone due to the hybridization. The low testosterone levels are also why all ligers are assumed sterile. But Hobbs does retain a hairdo that loosely resembles a mane, or a mullet, if you fancy.

Hopefully his tigress counterpart that shares his enclosure at the zoo appreciates his business-in-front, party-in-back demeanor. And if she doesn't, maybe she likes him for his tameness and his rapport with the local cubs, from what I'm told by his handlers at the zoo.

So maybe ligers really do encompass an intangible magic of their own and, depending upon your definition of magic, perhaps they are bred for their skills in magic. Either way, Hobbs remains the most popular attraction at the Sierra Safari Zoo, and ligers and tigons truly are wondrous creatures.

And for the record, my friends and I enjoy quoting "Napoleon Dynamite," but like all good things, only in moderation.


Ebnet is a senior kinesiology major and a columnist for The Spectator.


45 posted on 05/27/2005 5:07:41 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
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To: Jerry K.

Actually they are the largest cats, with the average male weighing 900+ lbs.


46 posted on 05/27/2005 5:07:47 PM PDT by visualops (visualops.com)
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To: visualops
Ligers are not sterile, and they can reproduce.

DANG!

47 posted on 05/27/2005 5:08:13 PM PDT by null and void (I am my own alter ego...)
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To: Vicomte13
I agree. I own two cats, and although they are fiercely loyal to me, I still would not pose with them like these photos if my cats were tripled in size.

Lots of people who love animals are simply clueless. I hope these folks get their heads screwed on straight and avoid such poses. Very dangerous, and I agree with you.

48 posted on 05/27/2005 5:08:57 PM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: CHARLITE

I wonder how he would act with a pound of katnip?


49 posted on 05/27/2005 5:09:02 PM PDT by TheForceOfOne (My tagline is currently being blocked by Congressional filibuster for being to harsh.)
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To: NorseWood
Loan him to the Minutemen for the border patrol.

LOL!

50 posted on 05/27/2005 5:10:56 PM PDT by Zechariah11
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To: CHARLITE

Bump!


51 posted on 05/27/2005 5:11:00 PM PDT by Rabid Dog
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To: LexBaird

No known fertile male ligers, plenty of fertile female ligers.


52 posted on 05/27/2005 5:11:39 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: jakkknife

Freak of Nature ping


53 posted on 05/27/2005 5:13:09 PM PDT by The Drowning Witch (Sono La Voce della Nazione Selvaggia)
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To: CHARLITE

I wish they had used this liger to attack Kim on "24"


54 posted on 05/27/2005 5:13:52 PM PDT by isom35
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To: CHARLITE

I saw this Liger on TV a week or two ago. Amazing.


55 posted on 05/27/2005 5:14:22 PM PDT by TAdams8591 (Terri Schindler was not in PVS, Justice was!!!!!)
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To: CHARLITE
Who writes this c**p?

If that animal is 10-foot tall, those people are close to 20-ft tall.

Perhaps the ambitious headline writer got carried away and meant to say 10-ft long?

56 posted on 05/27/2005 5:15:17 PM PDT by Publius6961 (The most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen, ignorance and stupidity.)
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To: CHARLITE

That is a saber toothed tiger.


57 posted on 05/27/2005 5:16:21 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Democrats haven't had a new idea since Karl Marx.)
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To: TAdams8591

Is it just me, or does it seem silly to call something a "liger"?

?


58 posted on 05/27/2005 5:16:46 PM PDT by bannie (The government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.)
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To: TheForceOfOne
I wonder how he would act with a pound of katnip?

A 1000 pound liger tripping on a hallucinagen ? That's not ANYWHERE I want to be unless I have my 454 Rossi nearby.

Hell, maybe not even with a 25mm Bushmaster.

59 posted on 05/27/2005 5:16:53 PM PDT by Centurion2000 ("THE REDNECK PROBLEM" ..... we prefer the term, "Agro-Americans")
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To: Centurion2000

LOL! I thought so!


60 posted on 05/27/2005 5:19:08 PM PDT by TheForceOfOne (My tagline is currently being blocked by Congressional filibuster for being to harsh.)
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