Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?

Charu Shambhavi
12 Min Read

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Did curiosity kill the cat or force it to produce offspring with its not-so-distant relatives? When I mention curiosity, I wholeheartedly refer to that of human beings since these members of the cat family can in no way come up with such an ingenious plan. Now, let’s answer the question, “Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?“.

Yes, tigers and lions can mate but not naturally. One of the obvious roadblocks in them conceiving a hybrid of their own naturally resides in the fact that they both prefer different geographic regions to live in. Tigers are known to live in diverse humid habitats like rainforests, grasslands, and savannas. Lions are prone to opt for fairly drier regions.

The only circumstance that can result in a lion and a tiger mating is artificial insemination. It is somewhat of an expensive process and thus, makes the offspring of a tiger and lion a rather prized animal. Now, you know why you don’t see clippings of them out in the wild on the Animal Kingdom.

1. What is the Name of Produced Young Ones of a Lion and a Tiger?

Designating a name for the hybrids of a lion and a tiger might just be easier than the process of creating one. It solely depends on the sex of its parents, that is, whether the offspring is produced from a male lion and a female tiger or a male tiger and a female lion.

Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?
Image by Alison Blackman from Pixabay copyright 2014

1.1 Ligers and Tigons

When a male lion mates with a female tiger then, the offspring is known as a liger. The hybrid produced after the mating of a male tiger and a female lion is called a tigon.

If you perceive this information from a feminist point of view, you could say that the rules of patriarchy didn’t spare the habitants of the jungle too. I mean, the first half of the young one’s name takes after its father’s name. The scientists could at least have been subtle about it.

1.2 Getting Acquainted with Ligers

Ligers are not only an amalgamation of their parents’ (a male lion and a female tiger) names but also of some of their best qualities. They have a lion-like head and tail. Their fur has faint stripping and molting which they inherit from their mothers. They too share the female tiger’s fondness for swimming and water.

They are quite amicable thus, taking after their lion parent’s genetics. Ligers tend to surpass their parents in size. They are known to be the largest member of the cat species. They can only be found in captivity thus, following the footsteps of their parents.

1.3 Familiarizing with Tigons

Tigons are not only rarer in existence than ligers, but some might also argue that they are the rotten fruit of the family. They are also known as tiglon or tion by many. A tigon is smaller in size than both of its parents (a male tiger and a female lion). A male tigon is also sterile.

It has a mixture of coloration and stripes from both of its parents but that’s about it. Sometimes they might even resemble a golden tiger with less contrast in their markings. Like their siblings of the Panthera family, they can also only be found in captivity. I guess, there is no debate around the fact that the Ligers won the better genes competition.

2. Health Problems Concerning this Cross-breeding

Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?
Image by Christine Sponchia from Pixabay copyright 2014

It is a time-honoured tradition of chaos following the meddling of humans with nature. We live through tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, and even forest burns but we never learn. “To err is to human” but will I be wrong in saying, “To err too many times is to the devil”.

Needless to say, all of us have wicked little voices in our heads. These voices are time and again fueled by the progressions made by science and our thirst for attaining more knowledge. The artificial mating of Panthera Tigris and Panthera Leo is no such exception. Both ligers and tigons are plagued by various diseases because of the cross-breeding performed in labs.

2.1 Sufferings Faced by the Largest Cats

The ligers, famously known as the largest members of the cat family, have a life expectancy of 13 to 18 years. Since it is one of the Panthera hybrids, it has a higher rate of getting injured or succumbing to neurological disorders. There is a higher risk of them developing health issues than their parents. Even a large number of organ failures along with cases of arthritis, sterility, cancer and whatnot have been reported in ligers.

2.2 What Do the Tigons Go Through?

Like their siblings, the tigons also face health problems like organ failures, neurological diseases, arthritis, sterility and things even worse. They also have a lesser life expectancy than a tiger or a lion and can live up to 15 years or less. Some tigons might even grow a mane if the gene is dominant enough. Few live to touch the 15 years milestone as most of them die at the young ages of 9 or 10. They often contract a fatal disease or die because of the genetic defects caused by laboratory breeding.

3. Other Animals Fraternizing with Different Species

The Panthera family isn’t the only one mating with different members within their species. Did you think that humans would just stop at this or that their first experiment was these lion-tiger hybrids? No, of course not, there might have been many before them and there were many after them. Yes, they might be suffering from varied health problems, but they exist, nevertheless.

3.1 Wholphins

Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?
Image by PublicDomainImages from Pixabay copyright 2014

Imagine the face of an adorable dolphin in the body of a giant, lethal whale. Hard to imagine? Well, that is because these hybrids are one of the rarest in the world. They can only be found in captivity. These creatures came into existence by the mating of a female bottle-nosed dolphin and a male false killer whale. Out of all the hybrids, wholphins might just be the perfect amalgamation of their parents with their dark grey skin and 66 teeth.

3.2 Leopons

Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?
Image by Irma Bense from Pixabay copyright 2015

Another distant cousin of the Panthera family, a leopon is a hybrid offspring of a male leopard and a female lion. They are artificially produced in captivity. These animals are as big as a lion but unfortunately, have shorter legs than leopards.

They possess deep affection for a plethora of leopard traits such as swimming and climbing chops. They even have siblings in the form of a leopard. A leopard is the result of mating between a male lion and a female leopard.

3.3 Can Lions and Jaguars Mate?

To answer your question, yes, this Panthera hybrid exists. It is known as a ganglion or a jargon which is a result of the mating between a male jaguar and a female lion in captivity.

Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?
Image by Katerinavulcova from Pixabay copyright 2018

They can also produce a liguor which exists because of artificial cross-breeding between a male lion and a female jaguar.

3.4 Can a Cheetah and Lion Mate?

Can a Tiger and a Lion Mate?
Image by DrZoltan from Pixabay copyright 2017

I regret to inform you that a cheetah and a lion cannot mate. They both belong to two very different genera and hence, are genetically incompatible. To speak in a simpler language, the semen and eggs produced by both animals are not compatible enough to produce offspring, even in captivity. Let’s just hope against hope and say that the scientists will force these cats to crossbreed too.

Check out: 18 Incredible Animals You Didn’t Know About

4. Is the Mating of a Lion and a Tiger Worth It?

We started this journey of satiating our curiosities with a spirit of inquiry and now, the time of deducing a conclusion of our own has finally arrived. The question isn’t whether or not the mating of a lion and a tiger is worth it, but it is why should a weaker version of two animals be produced just for the sake of establishing the dominance of science and humans over nature.

If we look at the matter closely then, we will find that both of these species, the Panthera Tigris and the Panthera Leo, are highly endangered animals but humans are too busy mating them to produce their feebler versions than saving them from their doom. I mean, would you rather watch a healthy, lively lion or tiger in their natural habitats or read about the different diseases plaguing their hybrids on the internet?

However, one fact that no one can deny is that these lions and tigers and their hybrids have a lot of aesthetic value. No wonder people pay such a good amount of money to see them in zoos or jungle safaris and maybe this is part of the problem I mentioned above.

In conclusion, while the mating of these cats might be possible, the process and the aftermath of it are not all sunshine. Such practices are in vogue only till the time they have a target audience. So, maybe it is time for the environmentalists to stop blaming the scientists and blame people like you and me instead.

Last Updated on by kalidaspandian

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This is Charu, an English major from Banaras Hindu University. She tries to be a writer, loves to disguise her passions as poetry and is an avid reader through and through. With her penmanship, she can communicate her thoughts in the simplest manner possible with proper diction and lack of grammatical mistakes. (She sincerely hopes to live up to her English professors' expectations someday.)