Ligers and Health Problems
There is a big speculation that ligers have health problems. These speculations also try to make a proof that ligers are vulnerable to couple of diseases and throughout their lives they face a lot of difficulties. This is absolutely wrong as the ligers which we have studied so far within the captivity are as healthy as lions and tigers. So ligers do not have any issue or problem related to health and they live a very normal life. Basically there is an intentional and desperate negative campaign against ligers, which considers everything that they can imagine without any evidence and factual data.
Some people say that mortality rates of the liger cubs are usually very high. This is also very wrong. Mortality rates of the tiger cubs are also very high as well. Usually fifty percent of the tiger cubs die after their birth. On the other hand, a tigress has given birth to 12 ligers in China, only two liger cubs died, while rest of them all survived well. This gives a very vivid indication that the mortality rate within ligers is also as normal as that of the lions and tigers.
In another study about pyometra in tigers, lions and ligers, lions were the ones being more vulnerable to pyometra than ligers and tigers. This is another proof that ligers are healthier. Similarly, one female liger has lived for 24 years in captivity, and it is very normal for the ligers to live more than 15 years. They live with a great health and live as better as lions and tigers. So we can conclude that the notion of ligers being unhealthy can be rejected here. Moreover; ligers can be considered better as compared to lions and tigers whenever it comes to the pyometra at least. In this case we can absolutely ignore the unhealthy attribute about the ligers.
Some speculations stated that ligers have weaker heart. This is another stupid myth and notion against the ligers. In this web project study, we have gone through the deaths of different ligers, and none of the ligers were died of heart failure. Moreover, none of the ligers were found to be having heart problems. According to Dr. Antle, ligers have a hybrid vigor. They have combined powers of lions and tigers; therefore, there is no way that the ligers can get vulnerable to certain health problems.
Moreover, there are very few ligers in the world, and among these few ligers, many of the ligers more than 80% grow more than 12 years. It is impossible to find any health problems regarding ligers, when such a lower population of ligers tends to live for much larger intervals of time. The bottom line is that ligers are not vulnerable to health problems. If anyone claims these things, they should come up with proof. So far no evidence has shown any proof, and these speculations have just spread through an unfair way of communication for gaining personal benefits. Currently ligers are not facing that much life endangered health problems as stated by the speculations.
