Tigon (hybrid)

A tion (), tigon (), or tiglon () (

portmanteau

of ''tiger'' and ''lion'') is the hybrid offspring of a male

tiger

(''Panthera tigris'') and a female

lion

(''Panthera leo''),Techné v6n3 – Patenting and Transgenic Organisms: A Philosophical Exploration
Scholar.lib.vt.edu. Retrieved on 2013-09-17. they exhibit visible characteristics from both parents: they can have both spots from the mother (lions carry genes for spots - lion cubs are spotted and some adults retain faint markings) and stripes from the father. Any

mane

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

genes

from both parents, but they do not exhibit any kind of dwarfism or miniaturization; they often weigh around , compared to ligers which often weigh from to

Fertility

Guggisberg wrote that

ligers

and tigons were long thought to be sterile; in 1943, however, a 15-year-old hybrid between a lion and an "Island" tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, although of delicate health, was raised to adulthood.

At the Alipore Zoo in

India

, a tigoness named Rudhrani, born in 1971, was successfully mated to a male

Asiatic lion

named Debabrata. The rare, second generation hybrid was called a litigon. Rudhrani produced seven litigons in her lifetime. Some of these reached impressive sizes - a litigon named Cubanacan weighed at least , stood at the shoulder, and was in total length.The litigon rediscovered
www.natureasia.com. Retrieved on 2017-07-22.

Reports also exist of the similar titigon , resulting from the cross between a female tigon and a male tiger. Titigons resemble golden tigers, but with less contrast in their markings. A tigoness born in 1978, named Noelle, shared an enclosure in the Shambala Preserve with a male

Siberian tiger

called Anton, due to the keepers' belief that she was sterile. In 1983 Noelle produced a titigon 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

cancer

at the age of eight or nine years old. Noelle also developed a severe cancer, that killed her not long after she was diagnosed.

Coexistence of parental species

As with the

liger

, the tigon is found only in captivity, because the

habitat

s of the lion and tiger do not overlap. In the past, however, the Asiatic lion did coexist with the

Bengal tiger

in the

wilderness

of India, besides occurring in countries where the

Caspian tiger

had been, such as

Iran

and

Turkey

.Pocock, R. I. (1939)
''The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia. – Volume 1''
Taylor and Francis Ltd., London. Pp. 199–222. In India, there is a plan to shift some lions from their current home of the

Gir Forest

to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, which has some tigers, but it has not been implemented as of December 2017, probably due to political reason, as Gujarat state government does not want any other state to have lions in the forests.

See also

*

Liger

*

Carl Hagenbeck

*Felid hybrid
*Leopon
* Hybrid growth disorders
** Genomic imprinting
* List of portmanteaus
*Maltese tiger
* ''Panthera'' hybrid

References

External links

Detailed Information of hybrid big cats.Liger
snopes.com.
Questions about Animals
Gk12.iastate.edu.
{{Mammal hybrids

Panthera hybrids