Interesting facts about ligers

Liger is the largest of all known cat species and represents a hybrid cross between the male lion and a female tiger. Ligers do not exist in the wild, only in captivity because tigers have habitats mostly in Asia and lions mostly in Africa and besides that they are mortal enemies in the wild ready to kill one another when confronted.

It is believed that there are only few living ligers around the globe, and the most famous of them all is called Hercules. Hercules comes from the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida.

Hercules' birth was completely accidental, a result of an affair between tigress and one of the lion males at the Institute.

Hercules currently weighs more than 900 pounds, he is 6-feet-tall and 12-feet-long and holds the Guinness World Record for the largest cat in the world. He is also able to eat 100 pounds of food in just one sitting

Ligers can run faster than 50 mph, they like to swim like tigers and are very sociable like lions. Ligers are approximately the same size as the prehistoric American lions.

Ligers can live longer than 20 years, for instance female liger Shasta was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on May 14, 1948 and died in 1972 at age 24.

Ligers are not sterile though their offspring is usually of very delicate health. Male ligers, for instance, have the same levels of testosterone on average as an adult male lion.

There are no black ligers, in some cases ligers can be white, though this is extremely rare.

Ligers are distinct from the similar hybrids tiglons (female lion + male tiger) which tend to be about as large a female tiger.