A liger is the offspring of a lion and a tigress. It is bigger than either parent, 10 - 12 ft in length - making it the biggest hybrid cat and, for many people, the most fascinating. L Reisinger(1929) reported a male liger as weighing as much as both parents together. The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress (Panthera tigris), hence has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tiglon.
Ligers vary in appearance depending on how the genes interact and on which subspecies of lion and tiger are bred together. According to AP Gray in Mammalian Hybrids, the basic colour of lion/tiger hybrids is pale ochre to rust yellow-brown, more intensive than in the lion, but paler than in the tiger and with tiger striping. The mane of the males develops late and is shorter than that of a lion. In general, males grow sparse leonine manes and the facial ruff of a tiger. Males and females have spotted bellies and a striped back. They roar like lions and "chuff" like tigers. The females exhibit conflicting needs for lioness-like sisterhood and tigress-like solitude. Ligers have no scientific name, but Panthera leo X tigris has been posited.
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