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This article is from
Creation 27(3):56, June 2005

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Lions, tigers and ligers

by

The pictures [available only in Creation magazine] show dad lion, mum tigress and ‘liger’ cubs. Since the pair came together in 1997 in the Samsung Everland safari park in South Korea, they have produced 17 cubs.1 Such hybrids probably do not occur in the wild, largely because lions and tigers do not live in the same areas. Ligers grow to become the largest cats in the world—up to half a tonne in weight—bigger than either parent. Did God create lions and tigers separately on Day 6 of Creation Week? That they readily hybridize suggests that lions and tigers may have descended from the same original created kind—just as chihuahuas and great danes have both been bred from an original wolf kind. Female ligers can often mate successfully with a lion or a tiger, but male ligers are apparently infertile.2

References

  1. Kelly, J., Roar passion, The Sunday Mail (Brisbane), 24 March 2004, p. 47.
  2. Ligers, <www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/ligers2.html>, 17 September 2004.