There’s a Liger in the house!

Pentung Technology University is now the host to a cross between a lion and a tiger. The university has an animal shelter for wild animals that have been abandoned or rescued from abusive homes.

The animal in the photograph is an actual cross between a lion and a tiger which was taken into custody by animal control recently. The animal had been bought from an “unknown” owner by a fellow who keeps exotic animals for display. Since his business was closing, the govt. took the animal (particularly since his facilities were actually too small to keep it anyway).

Since the parents are unknown, they’re not sure if it’s a liger or a tigon but either way it’s a beautiful animal.

BTW, in case you didn’t know . . . and I didn’t . . . lion-tiger mixes are larger than lions or tigers. Of course, while they’re beautiful animals, it’s not a good idea to cross them as these sort of hybrids are very rare for good reason and they are normally sterile.

Here’s a middle school page on ligers. While we’re on cats, here’s a nice introduction to evolution of cats as well as some fanciful feline hybrids.