Found these on the internet. These are
"ligers" a mix between a male lion and female tiger and claims to be the largest cat in the world, up to 800 pounds. I just could not get over the size of these animals. And to think La Brea boasted of having even larger big cats in the pits, and Asia and Europe, some of the largest in the world. These photos give me a feeling of the size, power, awe of the big cats of the past. To think they came even larger than this...!
4 comments:
Wow, BIG cats!
No lion.
the website said that when a male lion mated with a female tiger, the cubs grow to gigantic cats like this one and are not sterile, as supposed. And when male tigers mate with female lions, they are "dwarfed"; small(called a "tigon").
They are wery weak and sickly animals. A human invention (You should also see the mastiff crossed with lions, or hyenas, the South African police tried to breed during the Apartheidt period).
Well, certain poodles and siamese cats are even worse as manipulation of nature by man.
These crosses, lions and tigers, are sickly? Some go on to breed ti-tigons and li-ligons. I found several websites which had some facts, but did not mention these mixes as sickly. One website said that the reason we do not get these crossbreeds in the wild is that geographically these species never met. It implied that there might be cross breeding if they lived within each's territory. the first time I read about it was Tippi Hedron's fascinating book, "The Cats of Shambala" which did not mention producing a sickly animal. She does have her animal compound out here in (Acton?). I may be able to write to her. I posted these pictures because they captured my imagination of the size and awe that sabor tooth cats and their cousins, the European Cave Lion, the American Lion would have inspired had we been lucky enough to have them today. I do not endorse cross breeding of these animals, just amazed that it can happen at all. Thanks for the comment, oscar!
kim
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