In one of my earlier posts Lion plus Tiger equals Liger, you came across these cross breeds. Tigons are the opposite of ligers and have a tiger father and lioness mother. They may also be referred to as tiglons or tigons.
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.
Over Christmas 2000 a pair of tigon twins joined the collection at Australia's National Zoo. The male (Aster) and female (Tangier) were bred accidentally at a circus, the offspring of a Bengal tiger and a lioness. After being hand-raised they eventually moved to a private facility where they were housed for another five years.
Like all hybrid cats the offspring of a tiger and lioness share the characteristics of both their parents. They:
o Produce both lion and tiger sounds.
o Have shadow spots and stripes in varying amounts. The spots are inherited from the lion parent.
o Grow to enjoy water. Aster and Tangier are reported as occasionally "going for a paddle in their moat".
o Though males may have traces of a mane, if this is present it is very modest. Aster has no traces of a mane at all.
The life span of many hybrid big cats is short and they seem prone to cancers and other illnesses. Confusion between the social lion personality and the solitary tiger personality is noted by handlers.
It is commonly thought tigons are prone towards dwarfism and are much smaller than either of their parents. This does not always apply and they often have the body size of a lioness or Bengal tiger. Aster weighs in at 160 kg; this is the very upper end of the weight range for an adult female Bengal tiger, but small for a male. Tangier is 145 kg, the mid-range for an adult female Bengal. These tigons certainly do not exhibit any form of miniaturisation.
It is usually accurate to say tigons don't exceed the size of their parents. They also seem not to display the same tendency towards 'hybrid vigour' as regards faster growth.
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