To quote the mistake made by the site xrefer.com:
See tigon.
The mistake made is that the liger and the tigon are somewhat opposites of each other.
A liger is the offspring of a male lion (Panthera leo) and a female tiger (Panthera tigris), whereas a tigon is the offspring of a female lion and a male tiger.
Ligers (and tigons) most probably do not occur in the
wild. For one, the two
species prefer different kinds of
habitats. The only place in the world where tiger and lion habitats overlap is in the
Gir National Park and Lion Sanctuary in
India. Apart from that, it's rather unlikely that the very
solitary tiger would mix with the rather
social lion, which lives in
prides.
So the only known examples of tiger-lion
hybrids can be found in
zoos and big cat
sanctuaries1. Enter some of the
urls found below to see some great pictures of these remarkable
animals.
For some reason ligers are incredibly large, even larger than either of its parent species. The largest naturally occurring feline of the moment
2 is the
Siberian tiger (
Panthera tigris altaica), which can measure 3.30 metres from the point of its nose to the end of its tail and weigh a measly 300 kilograms. Some ligers have been reported to measure more than 3.70 metres and weigh about 500 kilograms.
A little of both
As one would expect, ligers combine a bit of both its parent species, although in general the lion
characteristics tend to
dominate. This differs with
individuals, though.
A liger (and a tigon, 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 up.
Male ligers sport a
mane, though much less
impressive than the manes of male lions. The
vocabulary of ligers is a
combination of lion and tiger sounds, and they may
roar like a lion and
chuff like a tiger. Ligers have a love of water that they
inherit from their tiger parent.
Hybrids, particularly male hybrids, are generally considered to be sterile, but there are some known instances of hybrids producing offspring. All known
fertile ligers have been females, so male ligers are
probably sterile.
The sterility of male ligers makes it impossible to mate ligers with ligers, so in the cases where female ligers produced offspring the other parent was either a lion or a tiger, thereby reducing the ligerness of the offspring.
Sources:
http://www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/liger.htm - liger Hobbs
http://www.loadstar.prometeus.net/tiger/hybrids.html - tiger/lion hybrids
http://www.shambala.org/Animals/patrick.htm - liger Patrick
http://www.tigers-animal-actors.com/tigerinfo/tigerinfopage.html - This page has a picture right at the bottom of a liger. See this one for some perspective on the size of ligers...
1 And maybe (but hopefully not!) in private ownership
2 As opposed to, for example, the previous Ice Age, when sabre-tooth tigers roamed the earth (contrary to what is often thought, this is not one of the ancestors of the modern day tiger)