TI-TIGON, TI-LIGER (TIG-LIGER), LI-TIGON, LI-LIGER

Female tigons and ligers are often fertile and can mate with a lion, tiger or in theory with another species such as leopard or jaguar. Tigers and ligers have been mated together to produce ti-ligers (tig-ligers). Tigers and tigons have been mated to produce ti-tigons (below). Ti-ligers and ti-tigons are more tigerlike (75% tiger). Ti-tigons resemble golden tigers but with less contrast in their markings. Lions and ligers have been mated together to produce li-ligers. Lions and tigons have been mated to produce li-tigons. These hybrids are more lion-like (75% lion). (See also Backcrossing for information.)

Male hybrids are rarely, if ever, fertile even if they do display sexual behaviour. To date, all male ligers, tigons, ti-tigons and li-tigons investigated have apparently proven sterile. There are no authenticated liger x tigon, liger x liger or tigon x tigon hybrids. Theoretical offspring could be lion-like, tiger-like, liger-like or tigon-like, depending on what combination of genes they inherited. It is more likely that anecdotally reported offspring from supposed hybrid-to-hybrid matings actually resulted from unobserved additional matings of a hybrid female with a pure-bred lion or tiger.

Many mid-to-late 20th century zoos claimed to have the first li-ligers, ti-ligers, li-tigons or ti-tigons in the world, but such hybrids had already been bred in the 19th century in menageries and circuses (mostly in the USA).

LI-TIGON

According to "Wild Cats Of The World" (1975) by Guggisberg, 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." Prior to this all lion-tiger hybrids were believed to be sterile (even though other hybrid females such as jagulep females were already known to be fertile). 1943 seems to be the first recorded instance of a second generation hybrid of tiger and lion. This female tigon produced nine cubs in five litters between 1948 and 1950.

On 18 January 2017, two litigon cubs went on public display at a safari zoo in Haikou, China. Their mother was a tigon and the father was an African lion.

In 2017, Shubhobroto Ghosh (of World Animal Protection in India, New Delhi, India), contacted me with information and photos about a hitherto forgotten litigon “The litigon rediscovered”. A photo of this animal had been found in the Guinness Book of Records 1985 by Dr Karl Shuker. Earlier, in July 2016, while scouring through the archives of the National Library in Kolkata, India, Payel Biswas, Librarian at the Institute of Urban Transport (India), New Delhi and Subhodip Bid of the National Library, Kolkata found a report “Litigon has taken after its sire” in The Statesman newspaper of 12th March (1980). It included a photograph of a male litigon. The report described this as a hybrid of a male Asiatic lion a female tigon (hybrid of a male tiger and a female African lion) bred at the Alipore Zoological Gardens in Calcutta (now Kolkata). The litigon was named Cubanacan by Jose Lopez Sanchez, the then Cuban Ambassador to India, and was photographed on its first public appearance. Until the rediscovery of the news report, this second-generation hybrid seems to have been forgotten.

Cubanacan grew to be one of the largest ever big cats of the time, weighing around 363 kg (800 lbs), and measuring 3.5 m long and 1.32 m wide at the shoulders. He was born during 15 years of hybridisation attempts between 1964 and 1979 at the Alipore Zoo. The zoo reportedly produced its first hybrid cat, a tigon called Rudrani, on 13 October 1972 in the sixth litter of a female African lion Munni and a male tiger Munna. A second tigon, Rangini, was born on 8 March 1974 and died in 1999, making him the oldest known tigon. Both tigons were named by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Siddhartha Shankar Ray. Rudrani was subsequently mated with a male, lion, initially reported to be an Asiatic lion, but now known to be an African/Asiatic hybrid, called Debabrata, resulting in Cubanacan, the only surviving litigon in a litter of three (one littermate wa stillborn and the other died a day after birth), Cubanacan. Cubanacan was the most famous of five surviving litigons out of the seven produced. Alipore was the only zoo in India to have tigons and the only one worldwide to have successfully bred litigons. Cubanacan died on 12 April 1991. The zoo subsequently tried, unsuccessfully, to breed further litigons. Rudrani ultimately produced seven offspring altogether, five of which survived (a survival rate of 71.42%). Accirding to Shubhobroto Ghosh, litigon Piyali was born in a litter after Cubanacan, 22nd March, 1982, and Merina was probably in the same litter.

Merina, one of the later litigons, had an uncanny habit of looking straight into the eyes of visitors whilst lying down. Shubhobroto Ghosh experienced this with her on more than one occasion. She was housed in a cage in a series of enclosures called 'The New Small Carnivora House.' According to the Bartaman (Bengali daily) report on litigons after the publication of "The litigon rediscovered" was published, the last Alipore Zoo litigon died in 1997.

So how did Cubanacan and his kin come to be created and then forgotten? In 1985, the Indian government banned big cat hybridisation experiments. Efforts were made to obliterate references to the hybrids bred at Alipore Zoo. Very few official records of its big cat experiments exist today, possibly a result of the ban on hybridisation attempts. These experiments did establish that hybrid tigons are fertile and can produce viable offspring. According to an official report “Lion, tigon match-up fails to show spark” (Toledo Blade. p. 22, 31 October 1976) “Attempts are afoot to induce companionship between Rudrani and an Indian lion called Devavrata. Signs of mutual acceptability are discernible and should compatibility result perchance, birth of a triple hybrid may not be that improbable as believed so far.” Amarendra Nath Guha, then Director of Alipore Zoo, was quoted in a newspaper as saying, “(Cubanacan was) an ambitious hybrid of a type believed to be improbable so far.”

The historical photographs below, purporting to be Cubanacan, with Josip Marcan are not Cubanacan. Marcan was never Cubanacan’s handler and Cubanacan never went outside of Alipore zoo or performed any circus tricks. The images are more likely to be a liger. Assistant Director of Alipore Zoo, Mr Sushanta Bhattacharya, handled the cat when he was measured for his Guinness record but there were no circus tricks involved. Cubanacan was reported to be extremely docile to the extent that he did not resist people measuring him manually. A Bengali newspaper did a story on the Litigons of Alipore Zoo after Shubhobroto Ghosh et al’s paper was published in Nature India online in April, 2017.

TI-TIGON

During the late 1970s/early 1980s, the Shambala Preserve had both a tigon and a ti-tigon. The full illustrated story of Noelle the tigon and Nathaniel, her ti-tigon son, is detailed in "The Cats of Shambala" by Tippi Hedren (also an article by V Junger, People 11:90-1 Jan. 22, 1979.). On Christmas morning 1978, handler Brad Darrington found a 1 lb striped female cub hidden behind the den box in Nikita's compound. Nikita was the preserve's 600 lb tiger who ruled a pride of 9 lionesses. The cub was believed to have be born to Debbie, a lioness that had arrived from LA Animal Control as an orphan in 1974. None of the lionesses was thought to have been pregnant, though they did sometimes give birth surreptitiously. Debbie rejected the cub. The was named Noelle and was hand-reared. At 5 days old, Noelle began making the nasal, puffing "ff-fuff" sounds of the tiger as well as the happy "aa-oow" of a lion cub. While tiger cubs dislike being held or cuddled, Noelle had the cuddly nature of a lion cub. Her nose was tiger-like rather than blunt like a lion. At about 2 weeks old, Noelle was diagnosed with septic arthritis which caused her to limp. At the time of Noelle's birth, Hedren knew of only 3 other tigons in the US.

Being such a rarity, Noelle was widely photographed and her image appeared in magazines and articles around the world. At the age of 4 years, she was a little larger than the average lioness, being taller and longer-legged. Standing on her hind legs she measured 13 ft from tail tip to nose tip. Her stripes were brown, rather than black, on an orange background colour with a white belly. She had mottled spots on the top of her head. Her vocalisations were lioness-like rather than tigress-like and she had the sociable nature of the lion combined with the playfulness and love of water of the tiger. She also inherited an excellent jumping ability, easily making 10 ft vertical leaps.

Noelle  was housed with 3 other tigresses and a 5 year old Amur (Siberian) tiger called Anton. Although the other lionesses and tigresses at the preserve were put on the contraceptive pill, Noelle was wrongly assumed to be sterile because she was a hybrid. She therefore came on heat regularly and mated with Anton from spring 1982 onwards. When Noelle displayed signs of pregnancy, it was assumed to be a false pregnancy (hormonal/psychological), however, on September 16th, 1983, she gave birth to a single small male cub. Noelle and the cub had to be separated from the other females who were attempting to kidnap the cub, wounding it in the process. The cub was named Nathaniel, this being derived from Tippi's birth name of Nathalie. Nathaniel was possibly the only ti-tigon in the world at the time.