Obviously not as nature intended. As nature intended the kitty would be a light snack for the tigress before he could even get it out.
But if you can mate a lion and a tiger. And the cat family seems to have a certain gentic integrity. If you tried to inseminate a tiger or other of the large cats with kitty sperm, would it take? Has anyone tried?
No I’m not not just asking because I want a tigerkitty to play with (and scare off the neighbors. Well maybe a little bit).
But I’m reall interested, what genetic mixes are possible? I’d think cats are fertile ahem ground for such speculation.
Probably not. The great cats (genus Panthera) diverged from other cats sufficiently long ago to make a viable cross unlikely. (And note that even within Panthera a lion x tiger cross is sterile.) But with questions like this, you never can tell until the attempt is made. As far as I know, none ever has been.
Within the small cats, certain crosses are possible.
It may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that they are fertile without qualification. Female Panthera hybrids are often fertile, but not all are. Males are almost always sterile.
In any case my main point was that, even though the species of Panthera are rather closely related, there is already some genetic incompatability. This is in contrast to the situation with dogs/wolves/coyotes/jackals of the genus Canis, in which inter-species hybrids are fertile.
The fact that genetic incompatabilities are evident even within the genus suggests to me that hybrids outside the genus are less likely to be viable. However, it’s not possible to be certain since even such a distant cross as llama x camel has proved to be possible.
Of course, one of the problems with testing this is that obviously the cross would have to be done by artificial insemination. Given the problems of obtaining sperm from a male big cat, or inseminating a female, it’s not likely the attempt would be made lightly. It’s unlikely any reputable scientist or zoo would try it.
I agree with Colibri. We have seen some forced mating of different species, but never that different.
There are several Genus of Felids: (from Wiki)
*FAMILY FELIDAE
* Subfamily Felinae
o Genus Felis
+ Chinese Mountain Cat (Felis bieti)
+ Domestic Cat (Felis catus)
+ Jungle Cat (Felis chaus)
+ Pallas's Cat (Felis manul)
+ Sand Cat (Felis margarita)
+ Black-footed Cat (Felis nigripes)
+ Wildcat (Felis sylvestris)
o Genus Prionailurus
+ Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)
+ Iriomote Cat (Prionailurus iriomotensis)
+ Flat-headed Cat (Prionailurus planiceps)
+ Rusty-spotted Cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus)
+ Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus)
o Genus Puma
+ Cougar (Puma concolor)
+ Jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi)
o Genus Acinonyx
+ Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
o Genus Lynx
+ Canadian Lynx (Lynx canadensis)
+ Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx)
+ Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus)
+ Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
o Genus Leopardus
+ Pantanal (Leopardus braccatus)
+ Colocolo (Leopardus colocolo)
+ Geoffroy's Cat (Leopardus geoffroyi)
+ Kodkod (Leopardus guigna)
+ Andean Mountain Cat (Leopardus jacobitus)
+ Pampas Cat (Leopardus pajeros)
+ Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis)
+ Oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus)
+ Margay (Leopardus wiedii)
o Genus Leptailurus
+ Serval (Leptailurus serval)
o Genus Caracal
+ Caracal (Caracal caracal)
o Genus Profelis
+ African Golden Cat (Profelis aurata)
o Genus Catopuma
+ Bay Cat (Catopuma badia)
+ Asian Golden Cat (Catopuma temminckii)
o Genus Pardofelis
+ Marbled Cat (Pardofelis marmorata)
* Subfamily Pantherinae
o Genus Neofelis
+ Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)
o Genus Panthera
+ Lion (Panthera leo)
+ Jaguar (Panthera onca)
+ Leopard (Panthera pardus)
+ Tiger (Panthera tigris)
o Genus Uncia
+ Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia)
I would hazard a guess that the Felidae genus line might, just might be able to be crossed near the “border”, as long as they are of the same Lineage.
*
"Genetic research gives a more concise classification for the cat family [5][1]:
I can’t throw a ball of yarn to that. Although it probably would scare the neighbors.
Ah well. I was just curious. As, like I said the cat genus seems to be pretty consistent, more so than others. Kitties and tigers (and other cats) have a remarkable amount in common, in behavior and morphology. So, I’ll have to wait for my kittger till I can get in touch with Dr. Moreau?
Kudos to DrDeth for a well-researched and detailed answer. Probably it would be the case that intragenus interspecies crosses would be viable and may or may not be fertile. (I think, working from fallible memory, that I’ve seen documented references to Pallas’s cat x domestic cat and wildcat x domestic cat crosses.)
A cautionary note: Older classifications of the Felidae group every member of the Felinae except the clouded leopard (Neofelis) and the cheetah (Acinonyx – including the cougar and ocelot – into genus Felis, and include Uncia as a part of Panthera. The present classification’s acceptance by consensus is newer than this message board, so do not be surprised to read even scholarly works referring to, e.g., the cougar as Felis concolor. Also worth noting is that Felidae usually includes a separate subfamily Acinonychinae comprising only the cheetah, and considered as an aberrant sister group to all other large and small cats taken together – I’m extremely surprised to see the Wikipedia classification include the cheetah, even in a separate genus, within the Felinae.
If you want a big house cat, get a Savannah Cat which is a cross between a serval and a domestic cat. They don’t require an exotic pet license but they aren’t cheap.
Thanks.
Well, I own a Bengal cat, which is part domestic and part Asian Leopard cat, which that rather modern breakdown has in different Genus, so yes, it is possible.
I remember when I was in College some texts had changed it to Panthera, so that’s a tad older than this MB, but yes, it’s relatively recent. Linnaeus did have it “Felis Leo”, of course.
The cheetah* is* an odd beast. Clearly a cat-like carnivore, where it exactly sits has been argued for decades. Wiki has this to say "The cheetah has unusually low genetic variability and high abnormal sperm count. Skin grafts between non-related cheetahs illustrate this point in that there is no rejection of the donor skin. It is thought that it went through a prolonged period of inbreeding following a genetic bottleneck during the last ice age. It probably evolved in Africa during the Miocene epoch (26 million to 7.5 million years ago), before migrating to Asia. New research by a team led by Warren Johnson and Stephen O’Brien of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity (National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, US) has recently placed the last common ancestor of all existing cat species as living in Asia c. 11 million years ago, which may lead to revision and refinement of existing ideas about cheetah evolution."
daffyduck, yes, the Savannah Cat is very cool. I wants one. But reports of it’s large size are perhaps overstated.
A BIG Savannah only gets to about 20#, which my Maine Coon is, and he’s not huge for his breed (25#+ is considered really big for a MCC). however, my Bengal only weighs half what the Maine Coon does, but is taller- he can stretch out and put his paws higher than my hips when he is standing on his hind legs. From the Savannah_cat’s I have personally seen, they continue this- in other words, a big Maine coon will outweigh them, but the Savannah_cats are likely the longest/tallest “domestic” breed.
Everyone here answer this topic like a genetic scientist without any data to back it up, but only assumptions. If human can shrink a wolf into a teacup chihuahua, there is a good chance that someone can shrink a tiger into a size of a full grown pitbull. This process would take at least 30 years to complete due the mature mating age of a tiger. The same selective breeding process was used on dog to achieve certain breed standard. In the early day, monk spend their life-time creating new dog breeds and it took over 3 decades to achieve the desire breed.
The same concept could be use on tiger by breeding them to slightly smaller cat gradually, this way the cubs are less likely to be deform due to big different in sizes. For example, 1st take a tiger and mate it with the panther > cheeta > lynx> then bob cat. In this process, breeder should pick the smallest cub to mate with other species to reduce the size. If this could be achieved in 30 years, imagine walking down 5th ave in NY with a full grown white tiger the size of a pitbull. This would be awesome!
Just to be safe, the owner can choose to defangs and declaws the tiger as a pub to prevent the killing nature instinct harm its owner. This tiger could be market for 10K each, once it gain the publicity, the people can own this amazing animal like a house cat without becoming lunch meat. If this project is successful it could prevent the tiger species from extinction because scientist could reverse engineer and breeding them back to the original size. This way we can preserve the wonderful gifts that mother nature provides.
In order for this operation to be successful, the breeding compound have to locate next to the slaughter house to reduce the feeding cost. Tiger have a big appetite, therefore, reducing food expense can prolong the breeding operation and increasing chance of success. I would hope someone with the financial capability to support this idea and bring it to life, because I be the first one to volunteer my whole life for this project.
I once thought it would be a good idea to breed house cats up to about St. Bernard size. Excellent guard cats they would be, I hypothesized. Compare a regular cat and a dog of the same size- which could do more damage if he’s really out to get you?
Yep, St. Bernard house cats for domestic defense would be great.
If we could a breed a house cat up to St. Bernard size, then we could breed a tiger up to about 10,000 lbs. That would rival a killer whale. Talk about litter problems.
There is a certain irony in the juxtaposition of these two sentences ;).
Sadly no, your hypothetical experiment would likely fail because, as noted above, some of the genera you cite are fairly divergent and would be unlikely to produce reliably fertile offspring. You’d have to do it the hard way ( as with dogs from wolves ) - breed tigers and keep culling every generation for the smallest individuals. However whether the tiger genome is plastic enough to produce designer “teacup” models is an open question. Not to mention all the other unintended consequences of inbreeding for a single trait.
Do feel free to give it a shot, though. You never know.
I can’t throw a ball of yarn to that. Although it probably would scare the neighbors.
But reports of it’s large size are perhaps overstated.