Do Ligers have a short Lifespan?

There are many speculations and myths that ligers have a short lifespan and they do not live as much as lions and tigers. The question is whether these speculations are true or not? Like most of the speculations, these speculations and myths are all wrong and they have just been put forward by those individuals who are against the breeding of the ligers. So in order to put their stance, they go across any extreme level and even lies and one such lie is

"Ligers do not live long & ligers have a very short lifespan

WIKIANSWERS indicate that the average age of the lions in the wild is around 15 years. On the other hand, within the captivity, they can live around 20 years. The same age is truly predicted for the tigers in the wild, but in the captivity, they are believed to live for even 25 years. Given these things in mind and taking into account that there are nearly 30 ligers available in the world, the following pivot chart can provide a key understanding about the age of the ligers.

Now this research was carried out about the female big cats to determine the disease named as pyometra (McCain et al., 2009). But look at the ages of the lions, ligers, tigers and even that of leopard. Liger has the highest age among this sample size. So there is some really positive news and a very reasonable fact about the age of the liger and that is they live as normal and as long as lions and tigers.

In 2006, a liger named as Samson died at the age of 11 to 13 years expectedly (Black Hills Pioneer, 2006). A prime age of the tiger and lion in the wild is usually around 5 years and they die about 10 years old. While in the cages, they both live around 20 years. Therefore, 11 to 13 year age of the liger sounds like below than an average age span living in the cage. But from the perspective of the wild, this age statistic looks alright. However, yet still the best way to research will be to evaluate the morality rates of the ligers. Such morality rates can indicate how they died and at which age.

In 1972, a female liger was died at the age of 24. That was the only liger in the world by that time (The Telegraph, 1972). Comparing this age with the ages of other cats such as lions and tigers, it does appear that ligers do not have a short lifespan at all. However, there have been some reports of liger deaths during the birth times but even tiger cubs die with almost the same rate at the time of the births as well. It is very pre-mature to develop the statement that ligers have a short life-span.

Sources and References


[For more comprehensive and specific referencing, visit the article individually as it will give more information about ligers and references].


Black Hills Pioneer. (2006). Liger Dies at Sanctuary. Black Hills Pioneer.


McCain, S., Ramsay, E., Dipl, A.C., Matthew, C., Allender, D.V., Souza, C. & Schumacher, J. (2009). Pyometra in Captive Large Felids: A review of Eleven Cases. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, 40 (1), 147-151.


National Geographic Kids Almanac. (2010). Available at [books.google.com].


The Telegraph. (1972). World's Only Liger is Dead.