World’s biggest hybrid cat is half lion and half tiger

A wildlife reserve in the United States on Tuesday unveiled the world’s big-gest hybrid cat — which is half tiger, half lion — or a liger.

Aries was presented to the world along with eight-year-old big brother, Hercules, at the Myrtle beach safari wildlife reserve in South Carolina. Aries and big brother Hercules are getting along famously. Hercules is almost 183-cm tall and weighs more than 406kg.

Ligers grow at a rate of 1lb a day, so Aries won’t be perching on his brother’s head for very much longer. They are a cross between male lions and female tigresses.

The liger project has been created by The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS).

“Generally, lions and tigers don’t reproduce and the male lion breeding with a tiger has only happened three times,” news.com.au quoted Dr Bhagavan Antle, the institute’s director, as telling the UK’s Mail Online.

“The great thing about ligers is they have this extreme social ability they get from their lion fathers. They enjoy the social life and touching and interactive play,” he added.

Trainer Moksha Bybee said the ligers love rolling against her and want to touch and play. Bybee said the ligers have inherited the tiger’s love of water and enjoy a dip to cool down.