Panthera hybrid
Most hybrids would not be perpetuated in the wild as the territories of the parental species do not overlap and the males are usually infertile.
In reality, there may be no natural born tigon or liger in the world, as lions and tigers are separated both geographically and by behavioral differences.
In England, African lions and Asian tigresses have been successfully mated, and three lion-tiger hybrid cubs were born in Windsor in 1824, which is probably the earliest record of captive-bred ligers.
Jaguar-leopard hybrids bred at Hellbrun Zoo, Salzburg were described as jagupards, which conforms to the usual portmanteau naming convention.
The 19th century zoologist A.D. Bartlett[4] stated: "I have, more than once, met with instances of the male jaguar (P. onca) breeding with a female leopard (P. pardus).
Scherren continued, "The same cross, but with the sexes reversed, was noted, by Professor Sacc (F) of Barcelona Zoo (Zoolog.
Herr Rorig expressed his regret that the account of the last two cases mentioned lacked fullness and precision."
Female jaguleps or lepjags are fertile, and when one is mated to a male lion, the offspring are referred to as lijaguleps.
On April 9, 2006, two jaglions were born at Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, Barrie (north of Toronto), Ontario, Canada.
Tsunami is spotted, but Jahzara is a melanistic jaglion due to inheriting the jaguar's dominant melanism gene.
Attempts to verify this report have been bolstered by recent images purported to show the adult Mickey (see External links section).
The alleged tiger × black jaguar was large, relatively long-necked (probably due to lack of a ruff or mane) with both stripes and "jaguar-like" rosettes on its sides.
Its skin was sent to Reginald Innes Pocock by Walter Samuel Millard, the Secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society.
[12][13] K Sankhala's book Tiger refers to large, troublesome leopards as adhabaghera, which he translated as "bastard", and suggests a leopard/tiger hybrid (the reverse hybrid is unlikely to arise in the wild state, as a wild male tiger would probably kill rather than mate with a female leopard).
From "The Tiger, Symbol Of Freedom", edited by Nicholas Courtney: "Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with leopards in the wild.
The 1951 book Mammalian Hybrids reported tiger/leopard matings were infertile, producing spontaneously aborted "walnut-sized fetuses".
Henry Scherren[14] wrote, "A male tiger from Penang served two female Indian leopards, and twice with success.
'The leopardess dropped her cubs prematurely, the embryos were in the first stage of development and were scarcely as big as young mice.'
[15] A liger is distinct from tigon (Panthera leo X tigris), as a hybrid of female tiger and male lion.
The male lion's genes tend to maximize the growth of its progeny, as the larger size represents greater competitiveness.
The genes of a female tiger, however, are not adapted to limiting growth, which allows ligers to grow far larger and heavier than either parent.
The presence of growth-minimizing genes from the lioness causes them to be smaller than either of their parent species;[24] they weigh less than 150 kg (330 lb).
Shasta, a female liger, was born in the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City in 1948, and died in 1972.
Some zoos claim they breed ligers or tigons for conservation, but opponents believe that it is meaningless to preserve hybrids that do not exist in the wild.
