Types of Ligers

Ligers can also be differentiated into four basic types or categories on the basis of their physical appearances. These four types of ligers include the Maned ligers, the Maneless ligers, the Tiger-lookalike ligers and the white ligers. Please note that all of these variations and differences have been observed within the male ligers and not the female ligers. Since, the ligers are the hybrid animals (male lions and female tigress offspring), therefore; there are always the possibilities that they may inherit more genes of the lions or more genes of the tigers or equal genes of both at the time of birth.

There are four types of ligers i.e., the Maned ligers, the Maneless Ligers, the Tiger-lookalike ligers and the white ligers. These four ligers are categorized on the basis of their appearance.

Consequently; these variations can be divided into 4 key types or categories. In our observation so far, a single litter of the liger cubs will always inherit similar genes, however; this litter of the liger cubs may slightly vary from the litter of the liger cubs born somewhere else to another mother. Let's differentiate these kinds of ligers further and analyze how small degree of physical variations differentiate them from one another?

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The first type of ligers are the Maned ligers. These ligers have a beautiful mane around their necks which resembles like the lions. Their manes might be smaller than the manes of the male lions but they are always big enough to be recognized as the manes. Furthermore; all the manes within the ligers were blonde colored while the male lions have blonde, golden and black-colored variation within their manes.

Maned ligers have the lion-like mane around their neck. However; the mane of the ligers are smaller than the mane of the lions.

There are oodles of examples in this regard, where a liger can be spotted with a beautiful mane around its neck. The most popular examples include Hobbs the liger, Patrick the liger and Levi the liger. Hobbs was the biggest liger of all times weighing more than 990 pounds while Patrick the liger have made key appearances within National Geographic as well. Levi the liger is still alive and it is thriving at one of the famous zoos in USA i.e., the Wynnewood Zoo.

Read 99 Facts of Ligers

The second type of ligers are the Maneless ligers. As the name suggests, these ligers literally have no mane around their necks. Despite the fact that they are the male ligers, their facial appearance from the area where their mane grows almost looks similar to that of the lionesses. In our observations, there are significant numbers of ligers who had no manes around their necks yet still their sizes were huge.

Maneless ligers are the ligers without manes. These ligers look much like lionesses at the neck area. However; these ligers are very huge.

Hercules the liger and his brothers Zeus, Vulcan and Sinbad are the best examples of the Maneless ligers. Hercules the liger is currently the biggest liger in the world weighing 921 pounds. Similarly; the ligers from the Big Cat Habitat Gulf Coast Sanctuary, ZWF Miami and Tigerworld also have no manes around their necks. It should also be noted that there are more maneless ligers than the maned ligers in the world.

Read 99 Facts of Ligers

A third kind of a liger is called the Tiger-lookalike tiger. This type of liger has more dominant genes of the tiger rather than the lion and its appearance pattern resembles like the tiger. To be precise; the Tiger-lookalike ligers are almost similar to the Golden Tabby tigers. However; their huge size and dominant appearance allow the observers to identify and differentiate them from the Golden Tabby tigers. Furthermore; the facial markings of the ligers are always distinctive as compared to the tigers.

The Tiger-lookalike ligers are basically the tiger looking ligers similar to the Golden Tabby tigers. These ligers are very rare and only two of them have been witnessed so far.

The Tiger-lookalike ligers are extremely rare and so far we have only witnessed only two such types of ligers in the world. Rocky the liger which had a fearsome reputation of killing one of its keeper was the perfect example of the Tiger-lookalike liger. The second one in our observation is a liger from the ZWF (Zoological Wildlife Foundation) at Florida, USA and this liger also looked like a Tiger-lookalike liger too.

Read 99 Facts of Ligers

Lastly; one of the rarest ligers are called the White ligers. These ligers are called the white ligers because they are born to the white male lion and the white female tigress. Despite the fact that these ligers are called the white ligers, their fur coloring is rather paler or creamy-colored. According to Dr. Bhagavan Antle the fur of the white ligers have a slightly lighter tawny brown color as compared to the normal ligers tawny brown colored ligers.

White ligers are born to the white male lion and the white female tigress. White ligers may not necessarily be entirely white but their fur is rather palest among all the ligers.

Therefore; despite they are being named as white ligers but these ligers may not have the entirely white fur on their bodies. There are only 4 white ligers in the world and they were born in 2013 at the Myrtle Beach Safari in the South Carolina state of USA.

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Apart from these four types of ligers, there are also two kinds of ligers that are called the Li-ligers and the Ti-ligers. However; they are the second generation ligers and their mothers are always the female ligers while in the case of ligers their mothers are always the tigresses. Even though the ligers are relatively few in numbers; the diversification and variation within them have been astonishing.

Apart from these 4 kinds of ligers, the Li-ligers and Ti-ligers are the second generation ligers. In both cases; the females are ligersses and they successfully mate with male lion or a male tiger.

Furthermore; within the wild these variations one way or another do exist within lions and tigers as well. Therefore; the diversification and variation within the ligers can also be assumed that the ligers as species are as normal as the lions and the tigers. Furthermore; this is the first time that a hybrid animal from the same parents has shown so much similar variation within its offspring.

Read 99 Facts of Ligers