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tigon

created by getha

(thing) by getha (6 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Tue Mar 06 2001 at 23:09:27

One of the instances that shows you shouldn't believe or accept everything you read on the internet. The site xrefer.com gives the following when queried about a tigon:

Okay, let's break this one down into parts.

A sterile hybrid cat, {..}
A tigon (or liger) is not sterile by definition. Evidence suggests that the male tigons are sterile, but that the female tigons are not. There is in fact evidence of female tigons producing offspring1.

{..} resulting from the mating of a lion and a tiger, also called a liger. {..}
No, it is not also called a liger. There is a difference, namely: a tigon is the result of the mating of a female lion (Panthera leo) and a male tiger (Panthera tigris), whereas a liger is the result of a mating between a male lion and a female tiger.

{..} This can only happen in captivity, {..}
Just about nearly true. The problem is that it could happen in the wild, but the odds are very remote. It probably never has happened outside of captivity, so I'll go along with this part. Albeit reluctantly.

{..} because lions and tigers naturally inhabit different continents.
Err, no. In India both tigers and lions are found, specifically in and around the Gir National Park and Lion Sanctuary.

Rather a regular-sized feline

In contrast to ligers, the tigon is somewhat smaller than its biggest parent species, the tiger. Where interbreeding leads to giants in ligers, it leads to dwarfs2 in tigons. Why this is, is not exactly clear.

Fifty-fifty, but not exactly

As one would expect, tigons exhibit traits and characteristics of both tigers and lions. However, the lion characteristics tend to dominate. There are differences between individuals, though.
A tigon (and a liger, too) often has the typical lion tan colouring, run through with faint stripes and spots. The stripes are obviously from the tiger parentage, but the spots come from the lion parentage. Lion cubs are born with spots, which disappear (or probably more accurately: become less visible) when they grow up3.
The vocabulary of tigons is a combination of lion and tiger sounds, and they may roar like a lion and chuff like a tiger.


Sources:
http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/tigon.html
http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/hybrids.html
http://www.shambala.org/Animals/patrick.htm
http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/hybrids.html

1 See the picture and text at the following URL: http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/tigon.html - sadly, not available anymore...
2 That's a bit of an exaggeration there, but tigons are noticeably smaller than tigers
3 Okay, you caught me. But this is plagiarism of myself, so back off.

printable version
chaos

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