Know what's a Liger? It's a cross breed of a Lion male and Tiger female...Read on......
The 10ft Liger who's still growing...
He
looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic creation
from Hollywood . But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood - as
he proves every time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar. Part lion,
part tiger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one, standing 10ft tall
on his back legs. Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed
parentage, he is the largest of all the cat species.
On
a typical day he will devour 20lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and
is capable of eating 100lb at a single setting. At just three years
old, Hercules already weighs half a ton.
He is the accidental result of two enormous big cats living close
together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in
Miami, Florida , and already dwarfs both his arents. "Ligers are not
something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan
Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures
and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting
along with a tiger girl, then loo and behold we had a liger."
50mph runner... Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of
among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for
lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one
another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia . But
incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred
in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World
War II.
Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and
a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion
mother. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical
characteristics of the tiger.
Look at the size of the head on this thing.. :o)
