If different canine animals are difficult to breed, even mule, which is a cross between horse and donkey, can only live alone and cannot reproduce. Although various countries are still studying hybrid breeds, they believe that hybrid animals have strong Potential, the strongest hybrid animal is the rare offspring of a tiger and a lion hybrid.
And in the zoo, we will see male lions and female tigers being kept together. For two top predators, they can fight for food or live in unparalleled harmony. Even mating and reproducing offspring.
The offspring of liger is called liger beast . Compared with lions and tigers, it is very precious. It has the appearance of a tiger and the skin of a lion, which resembles a lion. Like a tiger, his domineering appearance is breathtaking.
At present, there are only 20 ligers in the world, and the number is extremely rare. They are like mules made from crosses of mules, horses and donkeys, and cannot continue to breed offspring.
Liger mates, and among the offspring born, is more precious. It is formed by the mating of male tiger and female lion. It looks like a tiger with tiger-like stripes on its body. , But its limbs are similar to that of a lion, and the probability of mating and giving birth to a liger is extremely small. Therefore, there are fewer ligers or tiger lions.
In nature, there is an obvious difference between animals and humans. Animals have estrus periods. For lions and tigers, lions are indeed stronger than tigers in certain aspects, such as sexual desire.
is like the lion and tiger introduced in this article. Mating is a long and complicated process, even a bit peculiar. The breeding process of lions is definitely a physical activity. The mating process usually lasts 4 days, and the number of mating is 19 per day. Between 40 times, and an adult lion needs to mate about 3000 times a year in order for a female lion to successfully breed offspring.
For tigers, its murder weapon is not just a barbed tongue.The genitals, which we call "tiger whip", are also covered with barbs, which are mainly related to the structure of their genitals. Therefore, when tigers mate, there is a unique phenomenon of "locking and matching", tiger lion is very painful during mating.
The lion and tiger, although they belong to the same cat family, are two different species. There is reproductive isolation between the two, so why does it give birth to offspring after mating? ? Before we solve this problem, let's talk about this topic together.
1. Let’s first understand the living habits of lions and tigers separately
Lions are prolific in Africa and always like to inhabit grassy plains and open savannas. The yellow-brown fur of lions is the best cover The color makes it blend in with the natural background. Therefore, even in the daytime, if you don’t identify them carefully, it’s difficult to find them. Because of this, the lion often chooses some open resting places, which is conducive to observing the surrounding situation. , It is very useful for their hunting.
As the lions standing at the top of the food chain , they like to live in groups. The members and numbers of lions vary greatly, but they are composed of most female lions and a few male lions and cubs.
The estrus period of a female lion is generally in summer. The male lion feels the information of mating and is generally more active. The mating process of a lion generally lasts for 4 days. In order for a female lion to conceive successfully, it takes an average of more than 9 mating times a day. Each time is about 30 seconds.
Tigers, which are also cats, are a bit different from lions. They like to walk alone. Male and female tigers always live next to each other and only live together during the breeding season. The estrus period of a tiger is different from that of a lion. A wild tiger is in estrus all year round. When a male tiger is in estrus, it will leave its scent on the border in advance, and take advantage of the arrival of a rare female tiger with a strong taste. .
The estrus period of tigers usually lasts about a week.Mating hundreds of times, although the time is slightly longer than that of a lion, it generally does not exceed one minute.
If the lion or the tiger is stronger, which is stronger, then as the powerhouses of the animal kingdom, they are basically in a state of non-interference, and generally cannot fight.
However, if you really want to put a tiger and a lion together in a duel, according to expert speculation, the tiger is probably stronger than the lion. This comes from the fact that the sensitivity and endurance of the tiger are stronger than the lion, and at the same time, we should not underestimate the lion. In the power of the animal kingdom, their roar can also start small animals.
As mentioned above, we talked about the differences between lions and tigers, and we also understand that these are two different creatures. Then there are reproductively isolated tigers and lions. Why can ligers be born?
2. Rare offspring of lions and tigers
It can be said that tigers and lions are two species that are incompatible with fire and water. Lions and tigers, which are both cats, are separated from each other despite reproduction. According to the cognition, they are unable to give birth to offspring, and because of their common attributes, in theory they can give birth to offspring.
The lion, as a social animal, and the tiger, who likes to walk alone, have a big difference in their living habits. The two are like a mountain that cannot tolerate two tigers. When they meet, they will fight for food and bite each other. Local life, then they give birth to offspring, even in the case of captive breeding, the chance of successful conception of lions and tigers is only 1%-3%.
Two different species, tiger and lion, have emotions beyond nature. Their mating produces rare species. However, the law of survival makes them different kinds of animals, and the hybrid offspring produced are mostly sterile , This is also one of the reasons why the liger is so strange.
Liger has a low probability of conceiving naturally, and it is mainly a product of human influence. The offspring produced by the mating of a lion and a tiger are huge in size, similar in appearance to a lion, but with tiger stripes on the body, but keep The habits of the parents,Usually likes swimming like tigers.
The liger is larger than a lion or a tiger. It may be the product of two different species. The tiger weighs about 300 kg and the lion weighs about 250 kg. For the liger, it is bigger than the lion and the tiger. Heavier, the weight of a liger is about 400 kg.
The reason is that male tigers and female lions will pass on the genetic genes that control growth to the offspring of ligers. Because it is not the offspring genes of male tigers and female lions, their growth is not controlled. Ligers start from birth. It will continue to grow until their bodies can't bear it.
Ligers are the offspring of male lions mating with female tigers. The offsprings of male tigers and female lions are called tiger lions, which are even rarer. It is said that there are only 20 in the world.
Because lions and tigers are different species, even if they mate in captivity, the liger’s successful pregnancy rate is only one in 100,000, and the survival rate of tiger lions is even lower, only five With a probability of one in 100,000, there are currently 20 tigers and lions in the world, which are still extremely rare in the world. It can be said that the ligers have become precious animals on par with giant pandas.
3. Why is the probability of producing offspring among ligers so small?
It turns out that the main reason for the low probability of ligers is that they are different species. In the natural animal kingdom, different species often represent different chromosome pairing ratios, and this difference is in hundreds of years. There are laws in the evolution of.
In the animal kingdom, different species have differences in the fixation of their genetic material and the arrangement of chromosomal material. This means that two different genetic materials are mixed together, like lions and tigers. After the mating behavior can be completed, the genetic association cannot.
We combine the above and analyze in detail, why the liger has a low probability of producing offspring, because among all higher animals, any species has two sets of alleles . They should be at a certain local locus. Two, and if there is a mismatch in a certain part, it also means the genetic and developmental process of life,It can't be done.
This also represents the liger, as a different species, because of the different genes, although both belong to the cat family, in the case of reproductive isolation, the probability of the offspring produced by the liger after mating is also very low. .
As mentioned in the text, lions and tigers are reproductively isolated, and their offspring will not reproduce, so why can ligers give birth to ligers? Let's talk about it below.
According to our cognitive law, the liger cannot reproduce offspring because of reproductive isolation, but according to Holden’s law, when a closely related species or a semi-hybrid species crosses in the animal kingdom, if the offspring (F1) Only one sex is hybrid sterility or hybrid sterility. This sex is usually a heteromatch; and if the sex of a hybrid animal is determined by the sex chromosome, then the missing or infertile sex must be different Match gender (such as XY).
For ligers, because both lions and tigers have 38 chromosomes, as long as the offspring are females, they may be fertile and can mate with males to give birth to ligers.
Of course, combined with theory, ligers can also mate with male tigers to give birth to tiger lions, but the difficulty is one in half a million.
In the same way, male tigers and tiger lions can also give birth to tigers, tigers and lions, and male lions and tiger lions can also give birth to lions, tigers and lions.
So, what is the significance of the cross between a lion and a tiger?
Experts give different opinions
In 1981, the world’s first liger was born in France, which caused widespread controversy. Some scholars believe that the liger, a hybrid between a lion and a tiger, is a scientific research. It has no practical significance, it can only show that these two species can produce offspring on ligers, and they have only certain commercial value.
Some scholars believe that species in nature are in the process of biological evolution over millions or even tens of millions of years.The resulting and gradually stable inheritance of , in the course of historical changes, some species that did not adapt to changes in the environment became extinct, and in contrast, some new species emerged at the historic moment.
There are fixed biological species lines in the biological world. All these species are genetically stable. However, lions and tigers belong to different species. This kind of hybridization is meaningless, it will only violate the tenet and destroy . Species evolution , And even cause genetic pollution.
Biologists have different opinions. Experts believe that from the perspective of conservation biology, the hybridization of ligers has nothing to do with species protection, even if it is hybridization between different subspecies. It is also not allowed. It is called genetic pollution. For example, South China tiger and Siberian tiger, or Bengal tiger and other animals, whether it is a cross between any two tiger subspecies, even if It is the same species, the offspring produced by mating will lose its protection value.
From the natural point of view, since lions and tigers can hybridize, it proves that these two species are related in the course of evolution. The cultivation of mankind is only created for ligers and tigers. An opportunity to produce offspring.
In the opinion of experts, the hybridization of ligers is not necessary to cause controversy. It is like artificial breeding of pigs, turning them into domestic animals, and then using them to eat pork. If it is controversial, humans’ breeding of pigs, In terms of ethics, isn't it more cruel than the liger?
finally
In fact, for nearly a hundred years, although human beings have carried out unremitting research on the physiological structure and living habits of tigers, lions, etc., big cats, they have studied various genetic traits. Little is known about the genetic basis, and there are still many areas waiting to be explored.
What do you think of the rare offspring produced by the mating of a lion and a tiger? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss!
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