A ''Panthera'' hybrid is a

crossbreed A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. ''Crossbreeding'', sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism, While crossbreeding is used to mai ...

between individuals of any of the five

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of the genus '' Panthera'': the

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

, lion, jaguar, leopard, and

snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus '' Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is es ...

. Most hybrids would not be perpetuated in the wild as the territories of the parental species do not overlap and the males are usually infertile.

Mitochondrial genome Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial ...

research revealed that wild hybrids were also present in ancient times. The mitochondrial genomes of the snow leopard and the lion were more similar to each other than to other ''Panthera'' species, indicating that at some point in their history, the female progeny of male ancestors of modern snow leopards and female ancestors of modern lions interbred with male ancestors of modern snow leopards.

History

In theory, lions and tigers can be matched in the wild and give offspring, but in reality there may be no natural born tigon or liger in the world, because they are separated both geographically, by behavioral differences and lives in different places and do not mate together in the wild. In England, African lions and Asian tigresses have been successfully mated, and three lion-tiger hybrid cubs were born in Windsor in 1824, which is probably the earliest record, the three cubs were then presented to

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

Table of names for hybrids

Below are some tables showing the many ''Panthera'' hybrids. ''Panthera'' hybrids are typically given a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsrosetted female jagupard was produced at a zoo in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

( America). Jaguar-leopard hybrids bred at Hellbrun Zoo,

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were described as jagupards, which conforms to the usual

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), a jaguar gave birth to two cubs from a union with a black leopard; one resembled the dam, but was somewhat darker, while the other was black with the rosettes of the dam showing. Since

melanism The term melanism refers to black pigment and is derived from the gr, μελανός. Melanism is the increased development of the dark-colored pigment melanin in the skin or hair. Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of ...

in the panther (leopard) is recessive, the jaguar would have had to have been black, or be a jaguar-black leopard hybrid itself, carrying the recessive gene. Scherren continued, "The same cross, but with the sexes reversed, was noted, by Professor Sacc (F) of Barcelona Zoo (Zoolog. Gart., 1863, 88). "The cub, a female, was grey. She is said to have produced two cubs to her sire; one like a jaguar, the other like the dam. Herr Rorig expressed his regret that the account of the last two cases mentioned lacked fullness and precision." Female jaguleps or lepjags are fertile, and when one is mated to a male lion, the offspring are referred to as lijaguleps. One such complex hybrid was exhibited in the early 1900s as a "Congolese spotted lion", hinting at some exotic African beast, rather than a man-made hybrid.

Jaguar and lion hybrids

A jaglion or jaguon is the offspring between a male jaguar and a female lion (lioness). A mounted specimen is on display at the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Hertfordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It has the lion's background color, brown, jaguar-like rosettes and the powerful build of the jaguar. On April 9, 2006, two jaglions were born a
Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary
Barrie (north of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Jahzara (female) and Tsunami (male) were the result of an unintended mating between a black jaguar called Diablo and a lioness called Lola, which had been hand-raised together and were inseparable. They were kept apart when Lola came into

oestrus The estrous cycle (, originally ) is the set of recurring physiological changes that are induced by reproductive hormones in most mammalian therian females. Estrous cycles start after sexual maturity in females and are interrupted by anestrous ...

. Tsunami is spotted, but Jahzara is a melanistic jaglion due to inheriting the jaguar's dominant melanism gene. It was not previously known how the jaguar's dominant melanism gene would interact with lion coloration genes. A liguar is an offspring of a male lion and a female jaguar. When the fertile offspring of a male lion and female jaguar mates with a leopard, the resulting offspring is referred to as a leoliguar.

Jaguar and tiger hybrids

A tiguar is an offspring of a male tiger and a jaguaress. Reportedly, at the Altiplano Zoo in the city of San Pablo Apetatlan (near Tlaxcala, México), the crossbreeding of a male Siberian tiger and a female jaguarBaker, Taxonomy, pp. 5–7. from the southern

Chiapas Jungle The Lacandon Jungle (Spanish: ''Selva Lacandona'') is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico, into Guatemala. The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guate ...

produced a male tiguar named Mickey. Mickey is on exhibition at a 400 m² habitat and as of June 2009, was two years old and weighed . Attempts to verify this report have been bolstered by recent images purported to show the adult Mickey (see External links section). There has been no report of the birth of a hybrid from a male jaguar and female tiger, which would be termed a "jagger". There is a claimed sighting of a lion × black jaguar cross (male) and a tiger × black jaguar cross (female) loose in Maui, Hawaii. There are no authenticated tiger/jaguar hybrids and the description matches that of a liger. The alleged tiger × black jaguar was large, relatively long-necked (probably due to lack of a ruff or mane) with both stripes and "jaguar-like" rosettes on its sides. The assertion of hybrid identity was due to the combination of black, dark brown, light brown, dark orange, dark yellow and beige markings and the tiger-like stripes radiating from its face. It is more likely to have been a released liger, since these are very large and have a mix of rosettes (lion juvenile markings) and stripes and can have a brindled mix of colors exactly as described (their markings are extremely variable).

Leopard and lion hybrids

leopon A leopon (portmanteau of ''leopard'' and ''lion'') is the hybrid offspring of a male leopard and a female lion. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion while the rest of the body carries similarities to leopards. These hybrids are p ...

is the result of breeding a male leopard with a lioness. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion, while the rest of the body carries similarities to leopards. Leopons are very rare. A lipard or liard is the proper term for a hybrid of a male lion with a leopardess. It is sometimes known as a reverse leopon. The size difference between a male lion and a leopardess usually makes their mating difficult. A lipard was born in Schoenbrunn Zoo, Vienna in 1951. Another lipard was born in Florence, Italy. It is often erroneously referred to as a leopon. The father was a two-year-old, 250-kg lion, 1.08 m tall at the shoulders and 1.8 m long (excluding the tail). The mother was a 3.5-year-old leopardess weighing only 38 kg. The female cub was born overnight on 26/27 August 1982 after an estimated 92–93 days of gestation. It was born on the grounds of a paper mill near Florence, to a lion and leopardess acquired from a Rome zoo. Their owner had two tigers, two lions and a leopardess as pets, and did not expect or intend them to breed. The lion/leopard hybrid cub came as a surprise to the owner, who originally thought the small, spotted creature in the cage was a stray domestic cat. The mother began to over-groom the underside of the cub's tail and later bit off its tail. The cub was then hand-reared. The parents mated again in November 1982, and the lion and leopardess were separated. They were brought together on Jan. 25, 1983 for photographs, but the lion immediately mounted the leopardess and they had to be separated again for fear of endangering her advanced pregnancy. The cub had the body conformation of a lion cub with a large head (a lion trait), but a receding forehead (a leopard trait), fawn fur and thick, brown spotting. When it reached five months old, the owner offered it for sale and set about trying to breed more. The male

is a fertile offspring of a male leopard and a female lion. The fertile female liguar, offspring of a male lion and female jaguar, is capable of fertilization by a leopon. Their mating, though rare, results in a leopliguar.

Leopard and tiger hybrids

The name ''dogla'' is a native Indian name used for a supposedly natural hybrid offspring of a male leopard and a tigress, the combination designated ''leoger'' in the table above. Indian folklore claims that large male leopards sometimes mate with tigresses, and anecdotal evidence exists in India of offspring resulting from leopard to tigress matings. A supposed ''dogla'' was reported in the early 1900s. Many reports probably refer to large leopards with abdominal striping or other striped shoulders and bodies of a tiger. One account stated, "On examining it, I found it to be a very old male hybrid. Its head and tail were purely those of a panther

Indian leopard The Indian leopard (''Panthera pardus fusca'') is a leopard subspecies widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. The species ''Panthera pardus'' is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because populations have declined following habita ...

, but with the body, shoulders, and neck ruff of a tiger. The pattern was a combination of rosettes and stripes; the stripes were black, broad and long, though somewhat blurred and tended to break up into rosettes. The head was spotted. The stripes predominated over the rosettes." The pelt of this hybrid, if it ever existed, was lost. It was supposedly larger than a leopard and, though male, it showed some feminization of features, which might be expected in a sterile male hybrid. K Sankhala's book ''Tiger'' refers to large, troublesome leopards as ''adhabaghera'', which he translated as "bastard", and suggests a leopard/tiger hybrid (the reverse hybrid is unlikely to arise in the wild state, as a wild male tiger would probably kill rather than mate with a female leopard). Sankhala noted there was a belief amongst local people that leopards and tigers naturally hybridise. From "The Tiger, Symbol Of Freedom", edited by Nicholas Courtney: "Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with leopards in the wild. There has even been an account of the sighting of rosettes; the stripes of the tiger being most prominent in the body. The animal was a male measuring a little over eight feet .44 m" This is the same description as given by Hicks. The 1951 book ''Mammalian Hybrids'' reported tiger/leopard matings were infertile, producing spontaneously aborted "walnut-sized fetuses". A tigard is the hybrid offspring of a male tiger and a leopardess. The only known attempts to mate the two have produced

stillborns Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The term ...

. In 1900, Carl Hagenbeck crossed a female leopard with a Bengal tiger. The stillborn offspring had a mixture of spots, rosettes and stripes. Henry Scherren wrote, "A male tiger from Penang served two female Indian leopards, and twice with success. Details are not given and the story concludes somewhat lamely. 'The leopardess dropped her cubs prematurely, the embryos were in the first stage of development and were scarcely as big as young mice.' Of the second leopardess there is no mention."

Lion and tiger hybrids

(Panthera leo x Panthera tigris) x Panthera tigris (3)

The resulting hybrids that crossbreeding between lions and tigers are known as tigon ( /ˈtaɪɡən/) and liger (/ˈlaɪɡə/). The second generation hybrids of liger or tigon are known as liliger, tiliger, litigon and titigon. The tigon (''Panthera tigris X leo''), also known as tiglon ( /ˈtaɪɡlən/) is an offspring of a male tiger (''Panthera tigris'') and a female lion (''Panthera leo''). A liger is distinct from tigon (''Panthera leo X tigris''), as a hybrid of female tiger and male lion. In the case a fertile titigon has crossed between a female tigard, the hybrid is rare. Professor Valentine Bail conducted a long observation and recording of some lion-tiger hybrids, those lion-tiger are owned by Mr. Atkins and his zoo: The early record lion-tiger hybrid was mainly tigons, in ''At Home In The Zoo'' (1961), Gerald Iles wrote "For the record I must say that I have never seen a liger, a hybrid obtained by crossing a lion with a tigress. They seem to be even rarer than tigons." ;Liger A

liger The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion (''Panthera leo'') and a female tiger (''Panthera tigris''). The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the similar hybrid called the tigon, and ...

is the offspring between a lion and a tigress, which is larger than its parents because the lion has a growth maximizing gene and the tigress, unlike the lioness, has no growth inhibiting gene. ;Tigon A

tigon A tigon (), tiglon () (portmanteau of ''tiger'' and ''lion''), or tion () is the hybrid offspring of a male tiger (''Panthera tigris'') and a female lion (''Panthera leo'').

is the offspring of a tiger and a lioness. The tigon is not as common as the converse hybrid, the liger. Contrary to some beliefs, the tigon ends up smaller than either parent, because male tigers and lionesses have a growth inhibitor. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tigons were more common than ligers. ;Liliger A liliger is the offspring of a lion and a ligress. The first known liliger is a cub named Kiara. ;Litigon Rudrani, a tigoness from the

Alipore Zoo The Zoological Garden, Alipore (also informally called the Alipore Zoo or Kolkata Zoo) is India's oldest formally stated zoological park (as opposed to royal and British menageries) and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has b ...

, mated with Debabrata, a male (reportedly)

Asiatic lion The Asiatic lion is a population of '' Panthera leo leo'' that today survives in the wild only in India. Since the turn of the 20th century, its range has been restricted to Gir National Park and the surrounding areas in the Indian state of Gujar ...

(but which was later genetically established as a hybrid of the African and Asiatic subspecies of the lion), and gave birth to three

litigon A litigon (/ˌlaɪˈtaɪɡən/) is a rare, second-generation hybrid from a female tigon (a hybrid between a male tiger and a female lion) and a male lion, specifically an Asiatic lion. Description Litigons inherit and share characteristics wit ...

s. Only one litigon cub, named Cubanacan, survived. ;Tiliger A tiliger is the offspring of a male tiger and a ligress. ;Titigon A titigon is the offspring of a male tiger and a tigoness.

Growth and size

Typically, the size of a liger is more likely to be larger and heavier than all of other existing feline animals. Some biologists believe that the causes of its irregular large size, or 'gigantism', result from the lack of certain genes that limit the growth of lions. The male lion's genes tend to maximize the growth of its progeny, as the larger size represents greater competitiveness, so that the male lions could compete with other male lions. In order to control the size of the offspring within a certain range, the gene of the lioness will offset the growth-maximizing gene of the male lion. The genes of a female tiger, however, are not adapted to limiting growth, which allows ligers to grow extremely large—far more larger and heavier than its parent species. In general, most ligers grow more than in length and weigh more than . According to the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

(through 2013), the largest feline was the adult male liger, Hercules, from Myrtle Beach Safari, a wildlife reserve in

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, US. He was measured at , standing at the shoulder, and weighing . Hercules eats approximately of meat per day, and drinks several liters of water per day. Tigons too have growth

dysplasia Dysplasia is any of various types of abnormal growth or development of cells (microscopic scale) or organs ( macroscopic scale), and the abnormal histology or anatomical structure(s) resulting from such growth. Dysplasias on a mainly microscopi ...

, however inversely. They are smaller than the members of the parents species and weigh less than . A tigon is approximately twice as light as liger. Unlike ligers, tigons are cross between a male tiger and a female lion, the absence of growth-maximizing genes from the male lion causing them to grow smaller.

Appearance

Ligers and tigons look just like their parents, only bigger or smaller. They have huge teeth, about two inches long. Their genes include the genetic components of tigers and lions, therefore, they may be very similar to tigers and lions, and can be difficult to identify. Their coloring ranges from gold to brown to white, and they may have or not have spots or stripes. An adult male liger usually has a smaller mane than a male lion.

Longevity

A liger called Samson died at the age of thirteen in 2006. Shasta, a female liger, was born in the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City in 1948, and died in 1972. She lived for 24 years. Many claim that ligers are short-lived, but according to the survey, such a conclusion is still uncertain. A male tigon owned by Atkins born on July 19, 1833, lived for 10 years.

Fertility

Guggisberg said liger and tigon were thought to be invariably sterile, which means they cannot have offspring. The first hybrid of a hybrid (that being a child of liger) was discovered at the Munich-Hellabrunn Zoo in 1943. The birth of the second generation of hybrids has proven that the biologists' knowledge of tigon and liger was wrong; it now seems that only male lion-tiger hybrids are invariably sterile; while female hybrids can give birth as other Panthera animals as well.

Zoo animals

By 2017 roughly more than 100 ligers were thought to exist, but only a few tigons still exist since they are more difficult to breed. Moreover, ligers are more likely to attract tourists, so zoos prefer to breed ligers as opposed to tigons. Some zoos claim they breed ligers or tigons for conservation, but opponents believe that it is meaningless to preserve a species that does not exist in the wild.

References

External links

Hybrid Big Cats

* ttp://www.taringa.net/comunidades/tkaffee/945148/Felinos-Hibridos.html Photograph of Mickey the Tiguar, along with images of other ''Panthera'' hybrids (''in Spanish'')
Karl Shuker's Tiguar site, containing what may be a video of Mickey the Tiguar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Panthera Hybrid Panthera hybrids