Hybrid Big Cats of the 21st Century
The hybrid big cats of the 21st century include ligers, tigons, liligers, and the tiligers. Some of these hybrid big cats have also existed within the previous centuries as well while others have just been introduced within the 21st century. The overall possibility of the Hybrid Big Cats is highly likely by crossbreeding closely related big cats such as lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards and pumas. The 21st century has more numbers of the Hybrid Big Cats as compared to the previous centuries.
Hybrid Big cats of the 21st century include ligers, tigons, liligers and tiligers.
So far; all the Hybrid Big Cats have been reported within captivity while not a single one is witnessed in the wild. In the wild; where ranges of the big cats are shrinking, at the same time the presence of big cats in the captivity are gradually on the rise throughout the world. In USA the population of the big cats outnumbers the wild population of the big cats by 3 to 4 times. More numbers of the big cats in captivity means more versions of the big cats within common enclosures and this is where the process of hybridization starts i.e., the crossbreeding. Let’s take into account all the hybrid big cats that we have so far witnessed in the 21st century. These big cats include ligers, tigons, liligers and tiligers.
21st Century
More Big Cats in Captivity
Common Enclosures
Crossbreeding of Big Cats
21st Century Hybrid Big cats
Liger, Tigon, Liliger and Tiliger
Among all the Hybrid Big Cats, ligers are the most popular ones in the 21st century. A liger is a hybrid big cat that results from the crossbreeding of a male lion and a tigress. Ligers are known for their huge size and the Guinness Book of World Records has already declared them the biggest cats on planet earth. A liger weighs twice more than either a lion or a tiger. Ligers have dark brown stripes on their bodies along with the tawny brown colored fur.
Ligers are officially declared as the biggest of all the hybrid big cats within the 21st century.
Among all the ligers; Hercules the liger is currently the biggest one weighing 921 pounds. Since ligers are the biggest of all the hybrid big cats, therefore; Hercules the liger is also the biggest hybrid big cat in the world as well. Hercules the liger has also featured within Guinness Book of World Records as well and he lives at Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina, USA. Another liger named as Hobbs the liger weighed 991 pounds. Hobbs the liger will most probably be the biggest and the largest Hybrid Big Cat so far in the 21st century. Sadly; Hobbs the liger is not alive anymore.
21st CenturyHybrid Big Cat
Liger
Crssbreeding
Lion and Tigress
Key Physical Feature
Biggest of all the hybrids
Hercules the liger
Biggest Hybrid Big Cat
Another hybrid big cat of the 21st century is called a Tigon. A Tigon has a male tiger as its father and a lioness as its mother. Tigons are not as much huge as ligers but they are still as big as lions and tigers. Furthermore; in comparison with the ligers; the tigons are not as much popular as ligers. Some animal researchers believe that tigons are dwarf but this may not be true because a tigon might be marginally smaller than a lion or a tiger.
Tigon is another hybrid big cat of the 21st century. A tigon has a male tiger as its father and a lioness as its mother. Tigons are very rare.
Therefore; it will not be fair to declare the tigons as the dwarf ones. Wynnewood Zoo in Oklahoma, USA not only has Tigons but also has ligers and many other 2nd generation hybrid big cats known as Li-Liger and Ti-Ligers. Apart from USA a pair of tigons also lives at some private facility in Dubai. Famous Hollywood celebrity Vin Diesel has also interacted with the tigons in Dubai. China is another country which has a lot of tigons and many hybrid big cats.
21st Century Hybrid Big Cat
Tigon
Crssbreeding
Tiger and Lioness
Key Feature
Very Rare
Current Location
USA, UAE and China
Even though ligers and tigons were famously known before the 21st century; another Hybrid Big Cat which is only bred in the 21st century is called as a Li-Liger. A Li-Liger has a male lion as its father and a female liger as its mother. Li-Ligers are also known as the second generation Hybrid Big Cats. The world’s first Li-Liger was born in Novosibirsk Zoo in Russia to a male a lion and a female liger.
A Liliger is a second generation hybrid big cat of the 21st century which is an offspring of a male lion and a female liger.
A Li-Liger has a fur like that of a lion but it has Leopard-like spots all over its fur instead of stripes. There are less than 1 dozen Li-ligers in the world right now in 2018. Wynnewood Zoo is the only zoo in the world which has both male and female Li-Ligers. In fact the world’s first male Li-Liger was also born at the Wynnewood Zoo. Male Li-ligers can grow up to 800 pounds in weight and almost 11 feet long in length.
21st Century Hybrid Big Cat
Liliger
Crssbreeding
Lion and Female Liger
Key Physical Feature
Lion Fur and Leopard Spots
Origin
Russia
Lastly; another big cat hybrid that exists in the 21st century is known as a Ti-Liger. A Ti-Liger has a male tiger as its father and a female liger as its mother. A Ti-Liger has a very close resemblance to a tiger. In most of the cases; a tiliger usually has dark colored stripes and orange fur like a tiger. In some cases a Ti-Liger may also has a light colored fur with dark stripes as well.
A tiliger having male tiger and a female liger as its parents is another hybrid big cat of the 21st century.
A Ti-Liger may also grow bigger and stronger than a lion or a tiger but they are relatively smaller than ligers. A Ti-Liger named as Radar lives at the Tiger World Animal Sanctuary in North Carolina, USA. Wynnewood Zoo also has a Ti-Liger at its zoo premises as well. Just like Li-Ligers, Ti-Ligers are also very rare and there are less than 10 reported in the world right now. USA and China are the only countries to have tiligers.
21st Century Hybrid Big Cat
Tiliger
Crssbreeding
Tiger and Female Liger
Size
Bigger than a Tiger small than a Liger
It is believed that the world’s first Hybrid Big Cat was born in India in 1799; under the British occupation. At that time India was known as the Subcontinent. A litter of three liger cubs were born at that time and they were then transported to Great Britain for the Queen as a gift. Tigons, Li-Tigons and Ti-Tigons were also reported in the 20th century. But no news of Li-Tigons and Ti-Tigons has come in the 21st century.
There are more than 100 hybrid big cats in the 21st century. This figure of more than hundred is highest ever recorded population for the hybrid big cats in the world.
Also in the 21st century the population of the Hybrid Big Cats has increased to more than hundred for the first time. Countries with Hybrid Big Cats in the 21st century include USA, China, Argentina, Germany, Thailand, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, South Africa, Philippines, Indonesia, UAE, Iran, Mexico and Australia.
Total Hybrid Big Cats in 21st Century
130
Ligers
100
Tigons
8
Liligers
12
Tiligers
8
