Ligers and Tigons

Oh hello. So I went to the ROM with my surrogate family this weekend and was surprised to find out that Ligers actually do exist. Ligers, for those of you out there unfamiliar with the term, are a cross between a lion and a tiger. I was first introduced to the strange beast when I saw the movie Napoleon Dynamite. He cited that the liger was his favourite animal and I obviously thought that it was made up. But, as I learned on saturday, the liger does exist, and it is a truly preposterous creature. Obviously, lions were never meant to mate with tigers, but I guess some zookeeper got bored one day and he unleashed a lion on an unsuspecting tigresse and lo and behold the liger came to be. Due to the genetic mismatch of the two species, ligers grow to an enormous size, making them the largest felines that exist. Tigons actually exist as well, and they occur when a tiger and a lionesse mate. However, they don't grow to be nearly as humongous, therefore they are not nearly as hilarious. To learn more about ligers and liger-related trivia, visit your local library and google 'liger.'