A Panthera hybrid is a crossbreed between individuals of any of the five species of the genus Panthera: the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. 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 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 hybrid progeny of male ancestors of modern snow leopards and female ancestors of modern lions interbred with male ancestors of modern snow leopards.[1][2]
In theory, lions and tigers can be matched in the wild and give offspring. In reality, there may be no natural born tigon or liger in the world, as lions and tigers are separated both geographically and by behavioral differences. 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 of captive-bred ligers. The three cubs were then presented to George IV.
Naming of hybrids
Panthera hybrids are typically given a portmanteau name, varying by which species is the sire (male parent) and which is the dam (female parent). For example, a hybrid between a lion and a tigress is a liger, because the lion is the male parent and the tigress is the female parent.[citation needed]
Jaguar and leopard hybrids
A jagupard, jagulep or jagleop is the hybrid of a male jaguar and a female leopard. A single rosetted female jagupard was produced at a zoo in Chicago, United States. Jaguar-leopard hybrids bred at Hellbrun Zoo, Salzburg were described as jagupards, which conforms to the usual portmanteau naming convention.[3]
A leguar or lepjag is the hybrid of a male leopard and a female jaguar. The terms jagulep and lepjag are often used interchangeably, regardless of which animal was the sire. Numerous lepjags have been bred as animal actors, as they are more tractable than jaguars.
The 19th century zoologist A.D. Bartlett[4] stated: "I have, more than once, met with instances of the male jaguar (P. onca) breeding with a female leopard (P. pardus). These hybrids were also reared recently in Wombell's well-known travelling collection. I have seen some animals of this kind bred, between a male black jaguar and a female Indian leopard:-the young partook strongly of the male, being almost black."
In Barnabos Menagerie (in Spain), 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.[5] Since melanism 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
Jaguar/lion hybrid, Rothschild Museum, Tring
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. 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 at Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, Barrie (north of Toronto), Ontario, Canada. 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. 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.[citation needed]
Jaguar and tiger hybrids
A tiguar is an offspring of a male tiger and a female jaguar. Reportedly, at the Altiplano Zoo in the city of San Pablo Apetatitlán (near Tlaxcala City, Mexico), the crossbreeding of a male Siberian tiger and a female jaguar[6][7] from the southern Lacandon Jungle produced a male tiguar named Mickey. Mickey was on exhibition at a 400 m2 habitat and as of June 2009, was two years old and weighed 180kg (400lb). 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".[citation needed]
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).[8]
Leopard and lion hybrids
Taxidermy leoponA group of taxidermied leopons
A leopon is the result of breeding a leopard and a lioness. They occur only in captivity.[9]
The first documented leopon was bred at Kolhapur, India, in 1910. Its skin was sent to Reginald Innes Pocock by Walter Samuel Millard, the Secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society. It was a cross between a large leopard and a lioness. Two cubs were born, one of which died aged 2.5 months, and the other was still living when Pocock described it in 1912. Pocock wrote that it was spotted like a leopard, but that the spots on its sides were smaller and closer set than those of an Indian leopard and were brown and indistinct, like the fading spots of a juvenile lion. The spots on the head, spine, belly and legs were black and distinct. The tail was spotted on the topside and striped underneath and had a blackish tip with longer hairs. The underside was dirty white, the ears were fawn and had a broad black bar, but did not have the white spot found in leopards.[10]
Another lion-leopardess hybrid was born in Florence, Italy called lionard[11] or lipard (/'laɪpəd/ or /'laɪpərd/).
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 female tiger (tigress). 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.[12]
Tiger-leopardess hybrids have supposedly appeared many times. Frederick Codrington Hicks recorded that the weight of these creatures varied from 50 pounds to the weight of a tigress. In addition, in September 1965, a "leoger" skin was supposedly put on sale. There are some more documentations of this hybrid, but most of them are just of strange-looking skins that could also be attributed to genetic mutations. Most of these reports are probably hoaxes or misinterpretations, which makes it hard for scientists to learn about tiger-leopardess hybrids, but at least a part of the claims are true or in part true, such as the ones made by Frederick Codrington Hicks.[12][13]
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 [2.44m]." 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 tiger and a leopardess. The only known attempts to mate the two have produced stillborns.
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[14] 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
LigerTiliger cross of (Panthera leo x Panthera tigris) x Panthera tigris
The hybrids resulting from crossbreeding between lions and tigers are known as tigon (/ˈtaɪɡən/) and liger (/ˈlaɪɡər/). 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).[15] A liger is distinct from tigon (Panthera leo X tigris), as a hybrid of female tiger and male lion.[16][17]
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:
Date of birth
place of birth
number of cubs
amount of male cubs
amount of female cubs
longevity
first record
October 24, 1824
Windsor
3
2
1
1 year
second record
April 22, 1825
Clapham Common
3
not recorded
not recorded
short time
third record
December 31, 1826
Edinburgh
3
1
2
a few months
fourth record
October 2, 1828
Windsor
3
1
2
not recorded
fifth record
May, 1831
Kensington
3
not recorded
not recorded
not recorded
sixth record
July 19, 1833
Liverpool
3
1
2
10 years
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."[18]
Liger
A liger is the offspring between a male lion and a female tiger, 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.[19]
Tigon
A tigon is the offspring of a female lion and a male tiger.[19] 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.[citation needed]
Liliger
A liliger is the offspring of a lion and a ligress. The first known liliger is a cub named Kiara.[20]
Litigon
Rudrani, a tigoness from the Alipore Zoo, mated with Debabrata, a male lion,[21] and gave birth to three litigons. Only one litigon cub, named Cubanacan, survived.[22]
Tiliger
A tiliger is the offspring of a male tiger and a ligress.[citation needed]
Titigon
A titigon is the offspring of a male tiger and a tigoness.[citation needed]
Growth and size
Typically, ligers are more likely to be larger and heavier than all other existing felids. Some biologists[who?] believe that their gigantism results 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. In order to control the size of the offspring within a certain range, the growth-inhibiting 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 far larger and heavier than either parent. In general, most ligers grow more than 3.3m (10ft 10in) in length and weigh more than 400kg (880lb).[16] According to the Guinness World Records (through 2013), the world's largest felid was the adult male liger, Hercules, from Myrtle Beach Safari, a wildlife reserve in South Carolina, US. He was measured at 3.33m (10ft 11in) (standing 1.25m (4ft 1in) at the shoulder) and weighed at 418.2kg (922lb). Hercules eats approximately 13.6kg (30lb) of meat and drinks several liters of water per day.[23]
Tigons are a cross between a male tiger and a female lion. The presence of growth-minimizing genes from the lioness causes them to be smaller than either of their parent species[24]; they weigh less than 150kg (330lb). Tigons also have growth dysplasia (however, inversely). A tigon is approximately twice as light as liger.[citation needed]
Appearance
Ligers and tigons look similar to their parents, only bigger or smaller. Their teeth are about two inches long. They have the genetic components of tigers and lions; therefore, they may be very similar to their parent species and can be difficult to identify. Their coloring ranges from gold to brown to white, and they may have spots or stripes. Adult male ligers usually have smaller manes than male lions.[citation needed]
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.[25] A male tigon owned by Atkins born on July 19, 1833, lived for 10 years.[17]
Fertility
Guggisberg said ligers and tigons were thought to be invariably sterile. The first hybrid of a hybrid, a cub mothered by a liger, was discovered at the Munich-Hellabrunn Zoo in 1943.[15] The birth of a second generation of hybrids proved that the biologists were wrong about tigons' and ligers' fertility; it now seems that only male lion-tiger hybrids are sterile.[citation needed]
Zoo animals
By 2017, roughly more than 100 ligers were thought to exist; however, only a few tigons still exist, as 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.[26]
The tiger is a large cat and a member of the genus Panthera native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is traditionally classified into nine recent subspecies, though some recognise only two subspecies, mainland Asian tigers and the island tigers of the Sunda Islands.
A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard and the jaguar. Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been documented mostly in tropical forests, with black leopards in Africa and Asia, and black jaguars in South America. Melanism is caused by a recessive allele in the leopard, and by a dominant allele in the jaguar.
The leopard is one of the five extant species in the genus Panthera. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of 92–183 cm (36–72 in) with a 66–102 cm (26–40 in) long tail and a shoulder height of 60–70 cm (24–28 in). Males typically weigh 30.9–72 kg (68–159 lb), and females 20.5–43 kg (45–95 lb).
The term "big cat" is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus Panthera, namely the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard, as well as the non-pantherine cheetah and cougar.
The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion and a tigress, or female tiger. The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the opposite hybrid called the tigon, and is the largest of all known extant felines. They enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tigons.
A Congolese spotted lion, also known by the portmanteau lijagulep, is the hybrid of a male lion and female jaguar-leopard hybrid. Several lijaguleps have been bred, but only one appears to have been exhibited as a Congolese spotted lion. It was most likely given that name by a showman because the public were more interested in exotic captured animals than in captive-bred hybrids.
A golden tiger, sometimes called a golden tabby tiger, is a Bengal tiger with a colour variation caused by a recessive gene. Like white tigers and black tigers, it is a morph, and not a separate subspecies. Known for its blonde or pale-golden color and red-brown stripes, the golden tiger colouring comes from a recessive trait referred to as "wideband" which affects the production of black during the hair growth cycle. Tiger colorations that vary from the typical orange-with-black-stripe do occur in nature, but in a very small percentage.
A pumapard is a hybrid of a cougar and a leopard. Both male cougar with female leopard and male leopard with female cougar pairings have produced offspring. In general, these hybrids have exhibited a tendency to dwarfism.
The white lion is a rare colour mutation of the lion, specifically the Southern African lion. White lions in the area of Timbavati are thought to have been indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest recorded sighting in this region was in 1938. White lions first became known to the English-speaking world in 1977 through the book The White Lions of Timbavati.
A felid hybrid is any of a number of hybrids between various species of the cat family, Felidae. This article deals with hybrids between the species of the subfamily Felinae.
A rosette is a rose-like marking or formation found on the fur and skin of some animals, particularly cats. Rosettes are used to camouflage the animal, either as a defense mechanism or as a stalking tool. Predators use their rosettes to simulate the different shifting of shadows and shade, helping the animals to remain hidden from their prey. Rosettes can be grouped in clusters around other spots, or may appear as blotches on the fur.
Hybrid speciation is a form of speciation where hybridization between two different species leads to a new species, reproductively isolated from the parent species. Previously, reproductive isolation between two species and their parents was thought to be particularly difficult to achieve, and thus hybrid species were thought to be very rare. With DNA analysis becoming more accessible in the 1990s, hybrid speciation has been shown to be a somewhat common phenomenon, particularly in plants. In botanical nomenclature, a hybrid species is also called a nothospecies. Hybrid species are by their nature polyphyletic.
The Indian leopard is a subspecies of the leopard widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. It is threatened by illegal trade of skins and body parts, and persecution due to human-leopard conflict and retaliation for livestock depredation.
The white tiger, or bleached tiger, is a leucistic morph of the tiger. It is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, in the Sunderbans region and especially in the former State of Rewa. It has the typical black stripes of a tiger, but its coat is otherwise white or near-white, and it has blue eyes.
The Zoological Garden, Alipore is India's oldest formally stated zoological park and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has been open as a zoo since 1876, and covers 18.811 ha. It is probably best known as the home of the Aldabra giant tortoise Adwaita, who was reputed to have been over 250 years old when he died in 2006. It is also home to one of the few captive breeding projects involving the Manipur brow-antlered deer. One of the most popular tourist attractions in Kolkata, it draws huge crowds during the winter season, especially during December and January. The highest attendance till date was on January 1, 2018 with 110,000 visitors.
The tigon is a hybrid offspring of a male tiger and a female lion, or lioness. They exhibit visible characteristics from both parents: they can have both spots from the mother and stripes from the father. Any mane that a male tigon may have will appear shorter and less noticeable than a lion's mane and is closer in type to the ruff of a male tiger.
The liliger is the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female liger. Thus, it is a second generation hybrid. 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.
Infanticide is the killing of a neonate after birth. In zoology, this commonly refers to the killing and in some cases consumption of newborn animals by either a parent or an unrelated adult of the species. In carnivores, it is common for an unrelated male to commit infanticide to make females sexually receptive. Parental infanticide is sometimes a result of extreme stress by human intrusion.
↑ The Field no. 2887, April 25, 1908, Henry Scherren: "In a paper on the breeding of the larger Felidae in captivity (P.Z.S. [Proceedings of the Zoological Society], 1861, p.140),
1 2 Shi, W. (2005). "Hybrid dysgenesis effects"(PDF). Growth and Behaviour: Epigenetic and Genetic Factors Involved in Hybrid Dysgenesis (PhD). Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. p.8–10.
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