I just watched a fascinating piece on television concerning a huge cat-like creature named Hercules.  He was identified as a ‘Liger.’

The liger is a cross between a male lion and a female tiger. It looks like a giant lion, with tiger stripes.  Apparently, like tigers (and unlike lions), ligers love to swim.

Known ligers exist today because of human influence, either by deliberate human intervention, or by humans putting lions and tigers together in enclosed spaces.

Hercules apparently was the result of a male lion’s fond attraction to a particular female tiger that lived in his compound.

In natural conditions in the world today, tigers and lions generally don’t inhabit the same territory - the two species coexist in the wild today only in the Gir forest of India, although their respective ranges used to intersect in Persia, China, and other parts of the world. 

Based on this fact, some biologists believe that Ligers actually did exist at one time in the wild when lions and tigers co-mingled on a regular basis.

Hercules was a truly fascinating creature to behold, and seeing him and hearing this story made me wonder how many other wild creatures might exist in our world today if we had not destroyed or reduced their natural habitats and ranges so drastically.

Ligers grow much larger than tigers or lions because female lions and male tigers transmit a growth-inhibiting gene to their descendants. Being the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, the Liger does not have this growth-inhibiting gene and, therefore,  grows much larger.

The liger in the photograph above is named Hobbs, and he lives at Sierra Safari Zoo.  He is the offspring of an African lion and a Bengal tigress.

The staff at Sierra Safari Zoo says that Hobbs roars like a lion and swims like a tiger. And he's definitely all cat. He likes to play, and for all his incredible bulk, he moves just as silently as any other cat.

Hobbs is estimated to weigh in at about 1000 pounds, about twice the average size for male Siberian tigers.

And there are crosses between male tigers and female lions, too.  They are called ‘Tigons.’

Both Ligers and Tigons are fascinating creatures, indeed.  And I truly wonder how many other rare and exotic creatures once roamed this planet we call home.