Ligers and Tigons and Cuppies; oh my!

Madness!

So when you saw Napoleon Dynamite, did you have any idea that ligers were real? Yeah, me neither.

The product of a tigress and a lion (a tiger and lioness offspring is called a tigon), ligers are way bigger than either lion or tiger, standing up to 12 feet, and they love to swim.

Seriously? They've been bred (usually by accident) in captivity since the early 1800's, and no one was going to tell me?


This is Hercules the liger. He lives at The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.).


Kinky nineteenth Century painting of an animal trainer with lion, tigress and three hybrid liger offspring.

I found out about ligers while linking about looking into the puppies born to a cat this week in Brazil. The DNA still needs to be confirmed, but, if it is verified, it would be one of the most genetically dissimilar hybrid parentings since the Chicken Lady.


These are the puppies and their mom.

And how about the other magical hybrids that are legitimately happening around the planet?


A wolphin!


A zony! Cross between zebra and Tony Danza!

Also noted: when I told KT about this breaking story, she claimed that her mom had a cabbit as a child - a cat/rabbit hybrid. Searching about, I found a persuasive case that they don't exist, and are actually cats with malformed hindquarters. I wouldn't recommend pressing the subject with her though... it's best not to mess with family legend.


Some alleged cabbits! Veeerry curious.