Japanese Liger - First Ever Liger in Japan!
Japan is also one of the few beginning countries which also focused on the cross breeding in between the tigers and lions. It happened in 1975, when the first ever liger cubs were born in Japan. They were born at a zoo in Osaka. The breeding program was not intentional at all. But they just happened incidentally and authorities welcome the arrival of these new species in Japan.
Actually the authorities at the zoo had a big enclosure having vast amount of land. Within that land, they put tigers as well as lions together. One of the lion and tiger got acquainted together to such an extent that they started to meet. The result was 3 liger cubs which had the head exactly like that of the tiger and have a body and physique totally resembling that of the lions.
But sadly, all the three cubs died very soon. It is still unknown what caused these three liger cubs to die but the core understanding was that they were not strong enough to defy against harmful bacteria within the body.
Critics always criticize that ligers are born with a lot of defects, and it is impossible for them to survive. Even though if they survive, they fail to live a normal life. Ligers are always prone to different disabilities and diseases. However; there is no verified proof of these statements, as many ligers have lived more than 15 years and even some lived more than 20 years as well which is more than the age of the other big cats. Therefore, relating these Japanese ligers, that they had defects, would be too much early to say, because no research was carried out on such ligers about their deaths.