A
tigon,
tion or
tigron is a hybrid cross between a male
tigerThe tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
(
Panthera tigris) and a
lionessThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
(
Panthera leo), hence has parents with the same
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
but of different
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
. The tigon is not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the
ligerThe liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress , hence has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tigon. It is the largest of all cats and extant felines.Ligers borrow positive characteristics from both species...
; however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tigons were more common than ligers.
Tigons can exhibit characteristics of both parents: they can have both spots from the
motherA mother is a biological and/or social female parent of an offspring. Because of the complexity and differences of a mothers' social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to define a mother to suit a universally accepted definition.-Biological mother:In the case of a...
(lions carry genes for spots — lion cubs are spotted) and stripes from the
fatherA father is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother.-Father-child relationship:The Father-child relationship is the defining factor of the fatherhood role...
.
A
tigon,
tion or
tigron is a hybrid cross between a male
tigerThe tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
(
Panthera tigris) and a
lionessThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
(
Panthera leo), hence has parents with the same
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
but of different
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
. The tigon is not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the
ligerThe liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress , hence has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tigon. It is the largest of all cats and extant felines.Ligers borrow positive characteristics from both species...
; however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tigons were more common than ligers.
Tigons can exhibit characteristics of both parents: they can have both spots from the
motherA mother is a biological and/or social female parent of an offspring. Because of the complexity and differences of a mothers' social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to define a mother to suit a universally accepted definition.-Biological mother:In the case of a...
(lions carry genes for spots — lion cubs are spotted) and stripes from the
fatherA father is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother.-Father-child relationship:The Father-child relationship is the defining factor of the fatherhood role...
. Any
maneMane can have the following meanings:*The mane of a horse is used to describe the line of hair along the spine of the neck, starting behind the ears and ending just above the withers....
that a male tigon may have will appear shorter and less noticeable than a lion's mane and is closer in type to the ruff of a male tiger. It is a common misconception that Tigons are smaller than lions or tigers. They do not exceed the size of their parent species because they inherit growth-inhibitory
geneA gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic traits to offspring...
s from the lioness mother, but they do not exhibit any kind of dwarfism or miniaturisation; they often weigh around .
The comparative rarity of tigons is attributed to male tigers' finding the courtship behaviour of a lioness too subtle, and consequently missing behavioural cues that signal her willingness to mate. However, lionesses actively solicit mating, so the current rarity of tigons is most likely due to their being less impressive in size than ligers, with a corresponding lesser novelty value. A century ago, tigons were evidently more common than ligers. Gerald Iles, in
At Home In The Zoo (1961) was able to obtain three tigons for Manchester's
Belle Vue ZooBelle Vue Zoological Gardens was a large zoo, amusement park, exhibition hall complex and speedway stadium located in Belle Vue, West Gorton, Manchester, England. The Gardens opened in 1836 and developed into one of the most popular attractions in the north of England...
, but wrote that he had never seen a liger. A number of tigons are currently being bred in China.
Fertility
In
Wild Cats Of The World (1975), Guggisberg wrote that ligers and tigons were long thought to be sterile; in 1943, however, a fifteen-year-old hybrid between a lion and an "Island" tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich
Hellabrunn ZooTierpark Hellabrunn is the name of the zoological garden in the Bavarian capital Munich.The 36 hectare park is situated on the right bank of the river Isar in the southern part of Munich, near the quarter of Thalkirchen...
. The female cub, although of delicate health, was raised to adulthood.
Male tigons are
sterileInfertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to conception. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term...
while the females are generally
fertileFertile is the ability in organisms, including people or animals, to produce healthy offspring.Fertile may also refer to:*Fertile material, nuclides which generally themselves do not undergo induced fission, but from which fissile material can be generated*Fertile, Iowa, a small city in the United...
. Because only female tigons are fertile, tigons cannot reproduce with each other.
At the Alipore Zoo in India, a female tigon named Rudhrani, born in 1971, was successfully mated to an
Asiatic LionThe Asiatic Lion or Persian lion or the Indian Lion is a subspecies of the lion which survives today only in the Gir Forest of Gujarat, India...
named Debabrata. The rare, second generation hybrid was called a
li-tigon. Rudhrani produced seven li-tigons in her lifetime. Some of these reached impressive sizes—a li-tigon named Cubanacan (died 1991) weighed at least , stood at the shoulder, and was in total length.
Reports also exist of the similar
ti-tigon, resulting from the cross between a female tigon and a male tiger. Ti-tigons resemble golden tigers but with less contrast in their markings. A female tigon born in 1978, named Noelle, shared an enclosure in the
Shambala Reserve with a male Siberian Tiger called Anton, due to the keepers' belief that she was sterile. In 1983 Noelle produced a ti-tigon named Nathaniel. As Nathaniel was three-quarters tiger, he had darker stripes than Noelle and vocalized more like a tiger, rather than with the mix of sounds used by his mother. Being only about quarter-lion, Nathaniel did not grow a mane. Nathaniel died of
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
at the age of eight or nine years. Noelle also developed cancer and died soon after.
See also
- Hybrid growth disorders
Hybrid growth disorders refer to reduced growth or overgrowth in an organism that is a hybrid of two different species. In some sense, it is a type of hybrid dysgenesis when the growth disorder proves deleterious, thus making it the opposite of heterosis or hybrid vigour.Hybrid growth disorders may...
- Liger
The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress , hence has parents with the same genus but of different species. It is distinct from the similar hybrid tigon. It is the largest of all cats and extant felines.Ligers borrow positive characteristics from both species...
- List of portmanteaus
- Maltese tiger
The Maltese tiger, or blue tiger, is a suspected coloration morph of a tiger, reported mostly from the Fujian Province of China. It is said to have bluish fur with dark grey stripes. The term "Maltese" comes from domestic cat terminology for blue fur, and refers to the slate grey coloration...
- Panthera hybrid
The four living species of Panthera genus may produce a number of hybrid crosses...
- Tiger
The tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
- Lion
The Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...