Liliger


The liliger is the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female liger. In accordance with Haldane's rule, male tigons and ligers are sterile, but female ligers and tigons can produce cubs. The first such hybrid was born in 1943, at the Hellabrunn Zoo.

History

According to Wild Cats of the World by C. A. W. Guggisberg, ligers and tigons were long thought to be sterile, but in 1943, a 15-year-old hybrid between a lion and an 'Island' tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, though of delicate health, was raised to adulthood.
In September 2012, the Russian Novosibirsk Zoo announced the birth of a "liliger". The cub was named Kiara. Kiara was born to an 8-year-old female liger, Zita and a male African lion, Sam. On May 16, 2013 the same couple produced three more female liligers: Luna, Sandra, and Eva.
A liliger was born in the United States from a lion named Simba and a ligress named Akaria at 6:18 AM on November 29, 2013 at The Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Foundation in Oklahoma. At approximately 3:00 AM on November 30, 2013, the ligress gave birth to two more cubs.
Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota has said "In terms of conservation, it's so far away from anything, it's kind of pointless to even say it's irrelevant". The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the organization responsible for accrediting zoos in North America, neither approves of nor breeds the animals, because they focus on the conservation of wildlife and programs serving that purpose.