Breeding Hybrid Animals: Ligers, Tigons and Bears - Oh My!

According to most definitions, for a species to be classified as separate from another, the organisms in one species must not be able to reproduce healthy and fertile young with organisms in another.

But certain scientists and breeders, who question the separation between species, can crossbreed these animals to see just how separate they really are.

A liger, a mix between a male lion and a female tiger, may not be bred for its magic, but it is definitely real. Though rare, according to Lairweb.org, these creatures have existed for about 200 years, but not in the wild. Ligers can only be born in captivity.

For Patrick the liger, this is life.

Patrick, who lives at the Shambala Preserve in Acton has distinct traits of the two animals he was born from: the faint stripes of a tiger and the shaggy mane of a lion.

"Patrick loves to be in the water, which is a tiger trait, and he's social too, which is a lion trait," said Christine Link, a member of the advisory board at Shambala Preserve.

Link said that because of Patrick's mix of traits, he is kept separate from other big cats. Apart from the company of his caretakers, he lives a solitary life.

At one time, the 80-acre preserve also housed a tigon, and her ti-tigon baby. While male and female ligers and tigons are generally sterile, female ligers or tigons can be fertile and give birth. But tigons rarely mate due to their dual traits and considerably smaller size.

"The ligers are prone to gigantism and tigons have dwarfism," Link said. "Hybrids have many health concerns which would stop them from mating even if they weren't sterile." Hybrid animals tend to have health problems and therefore have a shorter lifespan.

Though ligers, tigons and other big-cat hybrids bred in the past have lived normal lifespans, other animal hybrid babies die quickly.

The Asian, African elephant hybrid, born at the Chester Zoo in England in the 1970s died after a little more than a week. Rumors circled soon after three of the other elephant hybrids were born deformed and lived shortly also, according to www.nature.com.