The Liger and the Tigon..

I have always been fascinated by cats. The lion and the tiger have been known to capture the imagination of the public since generations. So it does not come as a surprise when the idea for mixed breeding of lions and tigers came up decades ago. A liger is bred by mating a male lion with a female tiger and have been mostly grown in captivity. Ligers are prone to gigantism. A liger is twice the size of a lion or a tiger and its weight can be the combined size of its parents. Ligers shot into the limelight recently after being mentioned in the movie 'Napolean Dynamite'(A must see movie! Watch it for Jon Heder).

The Tigon is a hybrid cross between a female lion and a male tiger. The tigon is not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the liger; however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tigons were more common than ligers.
Tigons are the opposite of ligers and have a tiger father and lioness mother.

The breeding of ligers (lion father/tigress mother)
has always been easily accomplished, both by accident and design. Tigons, on the other hand, are extremely difficult to breed and very rare. Until recently, there were no recorded living tigons; the very few that do exist are probably in private ownership. Tigons are prone towards dwarfism and are much smaller than either of their parents.
So if you stay near a zoo that houses the liger or the tigon, please do pay a visit. They are a must-see!