While Napoleon Dynamite may have made these guys famous, they actually do exist. I have read they they grow to enormous sizes (ie much larger then normal lions/tigers) because a certain growth-promoting gene is not repressed.
National Geographic News Photo Gallery: “Dynamite” Pictures of Ligers
Check the wikipedia entry for more info … or if you don’t know what a Liger is.
Update: You can also check out these pictures (via digg) as well.
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What a beautiful animal! Amazing stripes with the look of a lion…I would love to see this animal in person! Wow!!!
Kimberly
hey, idiot, Steve Isaac…CHICKENS ARE ANIMALS.
gooooood job.
I find people like Steve Issac to be hideously ignorant. Oh dear! Ligers are “tampering with GOD’S creations”!!!
What an ignorant STUPID boob! I suppose you feel that a black person and a white person having children together is also tampering. A cat, is a cat is a cat. Any combination of felines are capable of interbreeding JUST LIKE HUMANS.
People like you are a danger to civilization.
ligers r cool and everything, but Deleria is right ligers are tampering with God’s creations. THAT IS WHY LIGERS ARE STERILE AND SO ARE MULES. SOME ONE OBOULSEY (God) DOESN’T WANT THOSE ANIMALS TO BECOME A NEW SPECIES. AND DON’T BE CALLING DDELERIA A BOOB. SHE’S RIGHT, AND UR WRONG…
wow Jance you are not only wise but knowledgeable, god hates milatos that why they are sterile too, i love old books written before anyone had any knowledge about the universe, bacteria that EVOLVE to be resistant to antibiotics is a sham, my cousin was faking sick! I love believing blinding what others do because conformity is awesome,so you damn logical science believing heathens better stay off this thread!
Ok, i am sorry that people who think that it is tampering with God’s work, sorry, but god made us and we made the Liger, so technically if he didn’t want them around why would he allow us to THINK of the idea in the first place. That is what things such as religion and politics should never be discussed between strangers.
Second, female ligers are not sterile, they just can’t produce sterile children. So naturally the species would die off! However, if we are able to cross breed dogs, why not cats. A lot of people I know have cross bred dogs, such as the Boxador, Cross between a boxer and a lab. I agree with the comment that a cat is a cat is a cat!
And I would really like to meet one of these cats, to show it some love, because there are obviously a lot of people who just cant appreciate LIFE, no matter what shape it takes, LIGER LOVE!!!
it’s a SHAME that people STILL HATE …and USE GOD as Justification .….… you are Probably against Stemcell research or ANYTHING that Studies the MAGIC OF LIFE .… I would PROBABLY Question the motivation of someone trying to cross a Horse with a Great Dane … TWO SEPERATE AND DIFFERENT SPECIES .….… but a CAT .…..is a CAT .…. Is A C A T !
Stop hatin and enjoy the wonders of life and LEARN DIVERSITY .….…
i DISAGREE I THINK SCIENCE AND RELIGION GO HAND IN HAND. I THINK GENETICS ARE A GREY AREA. IF A HUMAN IS STERILE DOES THAT MEAN INVETRO AND ADOPTIONETC ARE WRONG? GOD DOESN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS, BUT HE DOES SAY DON’T TAKE LIFE, SO WHY ARGUE ABOUT THIS WHEN PEOPLE ARE GETTING THEIR BABIES TESTED INUTERO AND THEN ABORTING THEM IF THERE IS SOMETHING “POTENTIALY” WRONG, OR BABY DESIGNERS WHERE YOU CAN PICK EYE COLOR HEIGHT HAIR COLOR. THESE ARE THE THINGS WE NEED TO RALLEY AGAINST.. lIGERS OR MULES, THAT IS HUMAN CURIOSITY. GOLDEN RETRIEVERS ARE A “HUMAN ” CREATED BREED AND THEY ARE THE BEST SEEING EYE DOGS, SO i AM EXTREMLY HAPPY SOMEONE STARTED THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX.
that is so right
they can but probably shouldn’t
Wow that bad boy is big
Ligers are so COOL! i do think that we should not purposely breed a lion and a tiger.if it hapens it happens.Making a new creature might throw off earths balance. but if it happens once or twice it would be fine but i dont think breeding this creature is the right thing to do. If God (or whatever your religon is)wanted this creature to be born and brought onto earths surface to be here as a new creature such as dogs, bears ect.. then so be it.
What happens when we create something that we can’t cage? simple it either eats of enslaves us. New world order baby! Woo! These animals a amazing and I find them to be beautiful. Tampering with god creation, please. had he not wanted them bred he would have made it so they couldn’t reproduce you goof! That is if you feel he exists and all. Stop pushing your beliefs on people
. Go Ligers!
i agrey go ligers lol
:O 
:E :B
cute
these mofos can grow to be 9 ft long and stand up to nearly 10 ft, freakin huge,though because its a peculiar breed they dont live as long as a regular lion or tiger. but i still want one, their badass.
WOOOOOWWWW
Ligers are cool but they cant reproduce. I want one too they are huge and i probly couldnt afford the food. lol lol lol
I just adoor this magnifasant creatcher! I just don’t know where to see them live at a zoo or somthing!
Steve Isaac Should Learn That He Doesn’t Need To Capitalize Every Single Word He Types.
i love ligers.anyone who gets to work with these amazing animals is so lucky.and i think anyone who thinks ligers are these man-eating machine are total idiots,and they need to think again
I don’t know… I think I’ll stick to black tigers.
ti-ligers are way cooler than plain old ligers…the tigon has issues,they are small.die more often.pity.
tigers are really cool,lions…I…guess they’re okay.but that’s not my point.ligers are just…sure thier big but…well…they look…too much like lions.
even though they’res no real proof they exist-I think they do-…
I still think…
BLACK TIGERS RULE!!!
“no real proof they exist” I was refering to black tigers, not ligers.
Ligers are awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love ligers sooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!
Where can i see a real live liger?
I appreciate your website and the pictures of the ligers that are here. Our 6th grade team has chosen the Ligers as our mascot for the past two years and I have found that the students enjoy learning about different animals that they may never see (either in the wild or in zoos in Arizona). It seems to remind them that they need to respect those that are different then themselves and to take care of ALL animals. Thanks again! National Geographic is a wonderful site and I use your materials every year and have for the past 16 years that I have been teaching.
thanks for the pics of ligers and tigons
i always wanted to see them
Nice tiger pictures, thanks!!
hi! dragon oak your name sounds cool!
omg!! so weird
They are so cool and very cute
I really wish people would learn how to spell, use punctuation and learn the difference between a and an. I think you should be educated before you can be allowed to leave your opinion on a public forum. This is a beautiful animal, God has nothing to do with it. Live your life for yourself, not for some mythical person you sheep.
ligers are pretty cool animals. as far as the “genetic engineering” and “gods creations” thing…what do you think a house cat is? or any domestic dog on the planet…some ppl watch too much cnn…theese are pitures of an animal not a forum for you to spout off your rightwing beliefs.
woot woot, ligers rule
BEAUTIFUL animals! I’m jealous after seeing the pics!
if you want to see one in live in florida, they have one at Jungle Island in miami.
that would be awsome to go to florida and see a liger
hi! i love tigers so i decsited to looks at these pics. i like them a lot but don’t get me wrong i think that your being a show off! butt i love these pics!
I want 1!!!
why wouldnt u want to breed these beautiful animalslet the world have more
Its just a stupid pussycat .… only 900 times bigger, for me the Amur Tiger remains the best big cat
Thats what I’m saying it’s just a (not stupid) cat!!!!
Ligers are sterile anyway. Make as many as you want. They wont be able to reproduce anyway so its no real harm.
The liger is a very beautiful and fasinating big cat, no doubt about it. But I can see why some people think that breeding them is wrong. Because of a ligers mixed ancestory they inherit conflicting behaviors. Lions are group animals while tigers are solitary, ligers suffer from deprpression when they have clashing natural instincts. They are incredible to see, but is it right to continue to breed them even with the psycological and physical problems?
i m glad 2 see such a terrific animal.GOD is great.
True it is big. I’m studying the liger in my class and I just want to know more.
your all chiggers
show yourself
liger is very cute and also very danger
waw what an beautiful animal
any updates coming ??
If you want to see a real live liger you need to go to the Big Cat Rescue in Tampa,FL. Also for those of you who say “I want one” think again. Although they are beautiful creatures they are not meant to be pets. If you seriously think that they are then you need to check out Big Cat Rescue. The BCR gets these cats from homes that have been inbreeding to get certain genetic traits, mistreating and abusing these animals b/c they are “so cute”. The liger is magnificent but also has a lot of genetic defects b/c of the different species. No a cat is not a cat is a cat. They are two different species! but you don’t have to believe me do some research on your own check out the BIG CAT RESCUE.
my teacher dosen‘t believe in ligers and i used to thik that ligers weren‘t real but now that i saw these pics i believe in ligers they are soooooooooooo cool!:)
To everyone who said that it was okay for people to create these animals because they were both cats, you’re wrong. Ligers have a serious problem with depression because a lion is an african cat who spends the entire day in the hot sun and does not swim, and tigers love to swim and are impressively good at it. But when they’re combined they don’t know what to do I guess, and their quality oflife is terrible.
All that bs about it being tampering with ‘god’s’ plan is just rubbish. however, all dogs are the same species, just as black and white people are the same species. tigers and lions are different species… just keep that in mind, people.
I mean I love god and I do believe that god’s creatures should’t be tampered with this is not back then I mean back! back! back! in the B.C’s but the animal is nice but don’t you think it’s kind of weird that it’s not able to reproduce. That right there might be a sign from GOD.
See thats our problem we need to read books more instead of staying on the computer all day than we’ll know about animals and how they interact I know this and I don’t even read books are stay on the computer.
Man o man keep cool boy wish yu discover with out fallin from yur chair
Mr Tiger tigerlyyurs
to all of you stupid morons who think this is wrong because “its against God’s will”, poof! this creature exists, so it obviously must not be. if it was, it never would have even worked out. so shut up already.