Tigon
A tigon is the artificially bred hybrid of a male tiger and a female lion. Like all hybrid species, there is no scientific name assigned to this animal. The tigon is not as common as the converse hybrid, the liger, however in the late 1800s and early 1900s, tigons were more common than ligers. Tigons do not occur naturally in the wild, as the lion and tiger have very different behaviours and habitats.
Tigons can exhibit characteristics of both parents: they can have both spots from the mother (lions carry genes for spots - lion cubs are spotted) and stripes from the father. Any mane that a male tigon may have will appear shorter and less noticeable than a lion's mane and is closer in type to the ruff of a male tiger. Tigons usually grow smaller than lions or tigers, due to the fact that they inherit growth-inhibitory genes from both parents; they often weigh around 150 kilograms (350 lb). They appear "housecat-like". However, some have reached the size of the smaller parent.
The comparative rarity of tigons is attributed to male tigers finding the courtship behaviour of a lioness too subtle and thus may miss behavioural cues that signal her willingness to mate. However lionesses actively solicit mating so their current rarity is most likely due to them being less impressive in size than ligers. A century ago, tigons were evidently more common than ligers. Gerald Iles, in "At Home In The Zoo" (1961) was able to obtain 3 tigons for Manchester's Belle Vue Zoo, but wrote that he had never seen a liger. A number of tigons are currently being bred in China.
History
Tiger crosses in captivity have been common for centuries. The first recorded cross-breeding in India dates back to 1837 when a tigon was presented to Queen Victoria from the princess of Jamnagar (an Indian state). India has a long history of keeping and breeding tigers, especially the "white tigers" now found in zoos around the world. Gerald Iles also referred to a travelling circus in the 1830 whose tiger and lioness produced litter after litter of hybrid cubs, some of which were exhibited to British royalty in 1837.
One of the best known tigons was Ranji, bred by Prince Ranjitsinji of Nawangagar and presented to the London Zoo in 1928. Frohawk, an artist and writer for the hunting magazine The Field found Ranji shy and said The hybrid favors the tiger rather than the lion in the shape of the body and head and it is particularly interesting to note that although the creature is a male, the mane is not larger than that possessed by some tigers and there is at most a small tuft at the end of the tail. The coat, however, is tawny and entirely lacks the reddish-orange hue characteristic of all tigers except those of the colder regions of central Asia. The stripes, nevertheless, although comparatively faint are clearly traceable and the lower parts of the body are whitish as in tigers.
In "Wonders of Animal Life" edited by J A Hammerton (1930), Ranji is described: At the zoological Gardens in London there has been produced a most interesting hybrid between a tiger and a lion. It has been dubbed the "tigon". It is decidedly not a noble-looking beast, is very long in the leg, where the stripes are most prominent, and of a general sandy hue.
Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester, England had a succession of tigons between 1936 and 1968. Kliou (male) and Maude (female) were bred at Dresden Zoo, Germany from a Manchurian tiger and an African lioness. They did not get on with each other (like solitary tigers rather than social lions) and were housed separately. Kliou died in spring 1941. Maude died in December 1949. In 1957, Belle Vue zoo obtained another tigon called Rita; she was smaller than either Kliou or Maude and lived until February 1968.
In July 1998, the Indian Express Newspaper reported the approaching death of the country's last known surviving zoo tigon. Rangini, born in 1974, resembled a lioness in size and shape, but with a slightly smaller head and jaw and a brighter yellow coat with faint tiger-like stripes. The zoo's first tigon, Rudhrani, born in 1971, was mated to an Asiatic lion called Debabrata and produced 7 li-tigons in her lifetime. Rangini was not allowed to have a mate due to pressure to end the breeding of hybrids. The zoo had also found male tigons and male li-tigons to be infertile. In 1985, the Indian Government forbade the cross-breeding of lions and tigers following a campaign by the Worldwide Fund for Nature. This ended a long tradition of lion/tiger breedings in India.
Current Tigon Breeding
In 1987, two tigons (Aster, a male, and Tangier, a female) were bred accidentally to a Bengal tiger and a lioness at an Ashtons Circus in Australia. In 1994 Aster mauled a child who put his arms through the bars of the tigons' cage. In December 2000, Australia's National Zoo in Canberra acquired the tigons, along with lions and tigers, from the private facility whose big cat accommodation was found to be inadequate. Although the zoo does not normally take on hybrids and will not breed any hybrid big cats, the tigons had no alternative and have proven to be star attractions. Aster and Tangier were overweight when they arrived at the zoo, but now have a large enclosure which includes a moat in which they sometimes paddle. They eat about 4 kg of meat per day except for two "starve" days to mimic the normal lifestyle of big cats. Aster weighs approx 160 kg (around the same as a large adult female Bengal tiger, but small for a male). Tangier weighs 145 kg (average for an adult female Bengal). Although they mate regularly when Tangier is in season, no offspring have been produced and Aster is assumed to be sterile. There are no plans to breed further hybrids or to mate Tangier to either a lion or tiger to ascertain whether she is fertile.
On August 14, 2001, Shanghai Safari Park announced that four tigon cubs accidentally crossbred by African lioness "Huanhuan" and Siberian tiger "Huihui" had been born the previous week. Unfortunately, none survived. The two male and two female cubs' hair on their legs and necks resembled their mother's shallow yellow hair, but their faces and tails were tiger-like. The front part of their bodies were lion-like and the rear part tiger-like. According to the zoo keeper, the lioness and tiger are both about three years old and are stars of the park's animal troupe. The lioness was in her mating season when the troupe was on an out-of-city tour. She chose the tiger, as her mate and became pregnant. The four dead cubs will be preserved as specimens and put on display.
In 2005, Shenzhen Safari Park in Southern China has also produced tigons. At that time there were four known tigons in captivity although there are believed to be others in private collections.
Tigers have also been bred to female ligers (ligresses) to produce ti-ligers. A tigon has a tiger father and a lion mother, and is 50% tiger. A ti-liger has a tiger father and a lion/tiger mix mother, and is 75% tiger. A private exhibitor in the USA claims that a large feline named Lady Kali is a ti-liger. At two years old she weighed 400 pounds (180 kg). Lady Kali has reportedly been exhibited as a roadside zoo attraction in various North Carolina locations from at least 1999 through 2004, and is apparently not part of any active breeding program. [1] Her owners display a USDA Class C exhibitor's license [2] valid through most of 2006 at their website. [3]
Fertility
Male tigons are sterile while the females are generally fertile. In India, a tigon named Rudhrani, born in 1971, was mated to an Asiatic lion called Debabrata and produced 7 "li-tigons" in her lifetime. Some of these reached impressive sizes - a li-tigon named Cubanacan (died 1991) weighed at least 800lb/363 kg, stood 52 inches/1.32 metres at the shoulder and 11.5ft/3.5 metres total length.
In "Wild Cats Of The World" (1975), Guggisberg wrote that ligers and tigons were long thought to be sterile: In 1943, however, a fifteen year old hybrid between a lion and an 'Island' tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, even though very delicate, was raised to adulthood.
A tigon named Noelle in the Shambala Reserve was housed with a Siberian tiger in the belief that Noelle was sterile. The pair produced a "ti-tigon". Ti-tigons resemble golden tigers but with less contrast in their markings. Noelle, the tigon, had been born in 1978 and shared an enclosure with a male Siberian tiger called Anton. In 1983, Noelle produced a ti-tigon name Nathaniel. Being 75% tiger, Nathaniel had darker stripes than his mother and "spoke" tiger rather than the mix of sounds used by his mother. Being only 25% lion, Nathaniel did not grow a mane. Nathaniel died age 8 or 9 years old due to cancer. Noelle also developed cancer and died soon after.
Australian tigon siblings Aster and Tangier mate regularly, but do not produce offspring. Aster, the male, is presumed to be sterile. It would be possible to mate his sister, Tangier, to a lion or tiger to ascertain whether she is fertile, but the Canberra zoo has a policy of not breeding hybrids.
Some Broadcom ethernet NICs use the code-name "tigon".
Actor Vin Diesel named his production company Tigon Studios.