https://socialreader.com/me/content/WSIKL?chid=80162&_p=article_related[0
Feel free to skip the Napoleon Dynamite jokes…
Nitpick: they are liliger cubs. The father is a lion the mother a liger.
Duliliy noted.
Dear Lord, that’s some concentrated cute right there. I’m mildly surprised that they’re even possible – aren’t hybrids like liger always sterile? I know mules are.
But who would win in a fight?
But why are they spotted like that? Is there some leopard in the mix too?
Actually, that’s just from the father, who is a lion.
All lion cubs are born spotted; the spots fade with time as they grow.
Photo of a 100% lion cub, as example, here
And now that I’ve had coffee and been up long enough to think coherent thoughts, I’ve looked it up and I’m fascinated to learn that, while many hybrids are indeed sterile because of the unequal number of chromosomes in the parents, there have been a number of instances of female mules having offspring. Huh! Learn something new every day.
Moved from Cafe Society to MPSIMS.
Sorry to break the chain of cute comments, but this sort of stuff really bugs me- modern zoos really should not be deliberately breeding animals which can never be released, or part of any conservation programme, especially large animals which take up masses of resources.
Yes, they’re all very cute babies, but who’s actually got the space to look after three more adult hybrid big cats properly? Wouldn’t that space be better used for animals in well-run breeding programs, rather than for novelty hybrids?
At least (as far as I know) these aren’t really prone to serious health problems, unlike the horribly inbred ‘white lions’, but I still think it’s very irresponsible.
I wonder if the AZA would have a problem with it if it occurred in the US.
[QUOTE=JoseB]
Actually, that’s just from the father, who is a lion.
All lion cubs are born spotted; the spots fade with time as they grow.
Photo of a 100% lion cub, as example, here
[/QUOTE]
That is so cool, thanks.
That zoo is freaking terrifying. I was there in the summer of 1995. Somewhere I still have photos of teenage girls entering cages, unprotected, to feed the big cats loaves of bread. Because, you know, that’s what big cats actually want to eat, right?
I suspect they were having budget issues then, and sure hope things have improved in the interim.
Yes.
Yes.
Oh, did you mean the bread or the girls?
I thought I was going to die of squee from the pictures of the mother liger licking the cubs and carrying them in her mouth!
It’s what my Siamese mix actually wants to eat. I keep trying to explain the whole carnivore thing to her. I buy her food where the first ingredient is chicken, not the cheap food that’s mostly corn. But what she really likes is treats where the first ingredient is corn. Just because something isn’t what an animal would naturally eat or what is best for an animal to eat doesn’t mean that animal doesn’t like it.
There are worse zoos.
I had a cat who liked salsa. Flaming hot salsa.