Eastern Romania: Baby liger born at a private zoo in Suceava

A baby liger, the product of the mating of a lion and a tigress, was born at a private zoo in Suceava, in eastern Romania, Monitorul de Suceava reported.

The baby is extremely rare, and there are at most 20 ligers in the world at the moment. It was met with excitement from local visitors.

The male liger, which has not yet been named, was publicly exhibited for the first time on Sunday, June 1, on Children's Day, at the “Noah's Ark” zoo corner in Zaharești.

“I’m thinking of calling him Goliath. Even now, as a cub, he is very strong, and when he grows up, he will weigh almost as much as both his parents combined. He can reach over 400 kg, while the maximum weight of a lion is 250 kg. He’s a true force of nature,” says exotic animal enthusiast Dorin Șoimaru, cited by Monitorul de Suceava.

Șoimaru also noted that the liger Hercules, who is in the US, weighs 418 kilograms and is 3.33 meters long, being listed in the Guinness World Records as the largest feline in the world.

Ligers can become extremely large and love swimming, unlike lions. Few of them exist since the chance of them being born in the wild is near zero, considering that tigers live in Asia and lions in Africa.

Male ligers are sterile, but not the females. They can mate with either a lion or a tiger. In the case of a hybrid born from a male tiger and a female lion, it is called a tigon; it has the tiger’s stripes more visibly, but lacks size and impressive strength of ligers.

(Photo source: Mcherevan/Dreamstime.com)