“What are you drawing”
“A liger”
“What’s a liger”
“It’s pretty much my favorite animal, it’s like a lion and tiger,bred for its skills in magic”
(Lines from Napoleon Dynamite can be found at http://www.script-o-rama.com)
Everybody may be familiar with this scene in Napoleon Dynamite, but does anyone actually really know what a liger is? They actually do exist, and I can tell you one thing, they might be good for their skills but I’m not sure about the magic part.
Ligers come from breeding a male lion with a female tiger. This can only happen domestically though because lions and tigers do not exist in the same regions of the world. The first appearing of a liger came in South Africa during the 1930’s. The two species were put into the same cage and since both have very different habits it was expected for two animals to fight. But to the surprise of many, instead of fighting these two animals mated and as a result, behold your first liger. Now, if you mate a male tiger with a female lion you will have a completely different species in a tigon.
The liger is no baby compared to their parents. In fact, they actually dwarf them. The liger is the world’s largest cat standing at nearly twelve feet tall on their hind legs and weight up to a half ton, which is almost double the weight of a wild lion or tiger. On the other hand, their sister cat is much smaller, the tigon is one third the weight of the liger. (http://ligerfacts.org)
The liger looks just like their parents but as mentioned above. Their color can be anything from white to gold to brown, with spots, strips or neither. Their teeth measure about 2 meters long. Unfortunately, these ligers have low fertility because the males are totally infertile and have a shorter life span. Which leads me to my main point, the breeding of ligers is completely inhumane.
The cameo made in Napoleon Dynamite pushed the liger breed into the limelight and increased breeding dramatically. They are breed that is only bred as an attraction to bring people to the zoo. Since it’s not made to happen, these cats are usually born with many birth effects and usually die very young. The few female ligers that are fertile are put at a great risk in delivery children since their offspring are so large, they very often need C-sections or die in the process of birth.
The title of “World’s Biggest Cat” is something cool to have, but the zoo’s that breed them may think differently. Once these cat’s get to a too dangerous size the zoo’s often “dispose” of them. Depression is also a very common thing in these animals as they often have conflicting behavioral instincts they are unsure which to follow. They’re prone to things such as cancer, disease and arthritis. They eat up to 45 kilograms of food per sitting and zoos often can’t reach this requirement which leads to hunger in these animals. (http://bigcatrescue.org)
When I first decided to do a blog on ligers, I thought “Wow, this is such a cool animal, I can’t wait to actually learn about it!” I was completely wrong. The more and more I looked into this animal I only discovered how mistreated it was, and how inhumane it was to create such a bread. This is something that is only, done to attract customers to the zoo’s to see a “freak animal” and nothing more than that. All we can do it raise awareness for the ligers and that’s all I hope this blog does.
Pictures from
http://firestormfan.com/2011/04/01/bwana-beast-liger/ (1st picture)
http://ligersandtigons.weebly.com/ligers-and-tigons—ligers-intresting-facts.html (2nd picture)
Bibliography
Hess, Jared, and Jerusha Hess. “Napoleon Dynamite Script – Dialogue Transcript.” Napoleon Dynamite Script. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
“Liger – Meet the World Largest Cat.” The Liger. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
“Liger Facts | Big Cat Rescue.” Big Cat Rescue, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.