They are Beautifull animals but I still think they are frankensteins of Science. I mean what if a Male and Female were to escape and thier Breeding wipe out a whole species, you Know?
2006-08-26 12:40:45 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
No they cannot breed...hybrids are sterile. Natures way of protecting a species..otherwise the world would be full of all sorts of crazy cross-breds.
2006-08-26 14:18:42 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
My understanding is that they are sterile.
Even if they escaped from a zoo in captivity (basically we're talking about the US and Europe) there is nothing out there for them to breed with.
Even if your worst fear was confirmed and they could escape and somehow breed (exceedingly unlikely) their genes would not take over the entire genome and wipe out a whole species. You can rest easy.
As an aside, within 10 years tigers will probably be extinct in the wild. Habitat loss will have eliminated them all. There will be a lot of tigers in captivity, though. I have a program on CD called "Living with Tigers" that I show to my students. It's about a couple of guys that set up a tiger sanctuary in Africa designed to build a tiger population from captive-bred tigers and teach them to be wild hunters, with the hope that someday tigers can become reintroduced to Asia after they become extinct. You seem interested. I highly suggest you take a look at that program.
There are plenty of websites available, just use a search engine, where you can get information on "ligers" and "tiglons". I use it as a unit to teach my students.
2006-08-26 19:54:33 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not exactly sure, but I think they can. I belive I read on a Liger website that they are not sterile as originally thought. But, of course, I don't know for certain.
2006-08-27 10:43:10 · answer #3 · answered by birdfreak 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no but there is a real liger that did exist. Its on display at Hogle zoo in Ogden Utah. when you cross certain animals they loose the ability to reproduce.
2006-08-27 05:01:39 · answer #4 · answered by KrazyK784 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are born sterile. The same would be true of Tigons also.
2006-08-26 19:47:17 · answer #5 · answered by sam2sar 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes
2006-08-26 19:43:26 · answer #6 · answered by Ynot me 2 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think that, like mules, they are sterile.
2006-08-26 19:44:25 · answer #7 · answered by Albannach 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes they can
2006-08-26 19:43:58 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋