Liger Radar - A Ti-liger from a Female Liger and Male Tiger
Radar is a male liger that lives at the wild animal sanctuary at Rockwell in United States (Tigerworld). When Radar was about 15 weeks old, Radar was transferred from Florida to the Rockwell Animal Sanctuary. Radar still lives in the animal sanctuary named as TigerWorld. United States has the highest population of ligers in the world. All the ligers in the world are born in captivity. There has never been an evidence of a liger being born in the wild. However, this might would have happened hundred years ago when the population of tigers and lions was at its best in the nature.
According to the keeper, the radar used to have big ears. At 15 weeks; Radar the Tiliger gained a weight of around 40 pounds which is more than the weights of the lions and tigers at the same age. Liger cubs grow at a very fast rate during the first year of their life. However, this growth later subsides unless the ligers reach the size around 900 pounds. Radar perfectly became accustomed to the environment at the zoo, even though it was transferred from so far away from Florida to Rockwell.
According to the officials at the zoo, Radar being a cub was very friendly and socializes well with the other cats. This trait resembles it with lions. However, it has nice thick visible stripes, which gives it the traits of the tigers. Being a 17 weeks old cub Radar used to take milk about 3 times a day and loves to eat meat. Radar used to share its enclosure with two female tigers which were about 14 weeks old each.
Until now in 2010, Radar would have been a very young and energetic liger weighing more than at least 400 pounds. Its age would have been more than 2 years old as recorded in 2010. A 2 to 3 year old liger is a perfectly adult liger and is capable of having weights of around 600 to 900 pounds at maximum.
There are very few Ti-Ligers in the world. Ti-Ligers are rare ligers which have a Female Liger and male tiger as its parents. Ligerworld.com has only witnessed so far 1 Ti-Liger, in the world, there hasn't been any other news of Ti-Liger in in the world yet. This also makes Ti-Liger as even more special than ligers and Tigons. The presence of Ti-Ligers also indicate that female ligers are fertile and denies the ligers possibilities of being sterile.
Sources & References
Chaffin, K. (2008). Lions and tigers: Newborn liger on the prowl at Tiger World. Salisbury Post.