Panthera hybrid

The four living species of Panthera genus (Panthera leo (Lion), Panthera onca (Jaguar), Panthera pardus (Leopard), Panthera tigris (Tiger)) may produce a number of hybrid crosses. These hybrids are often given a compound name reflecting their breeding, while at other times they bear a more traditional name.

	Lion ♀	Tiger ♀	Jaguar ♀	Leopard ♀
Lion	Lion	Liger	Liguar	Lipard
Tiger	Tigon	Tiger	Tiguar	Tigard
Jaguar	Jaglion	Jagger	Jaguar	Jagupard
Leopard	Leopon	Dogla	Leguar	Leopard

Jaguar and leopard hybrids

Jagupard

A jagupard, jagulep, or jagleop, is the hybrid of a jaguar and a leopardess. A single rosetted, female jagupard was produced at a zoo in Chicago. Jaguar-leopard hybrids bred at Hellbrun Zoo, Salzburg were described as jagupards which conforms to the usual portmanteau naming convention.

• H Windischbauer, Hellbrun Zoo (1968)

Leguar

A leguar, or lepjag, is the hybrid of a male leopard and a female jaguar. The terms jagulep and lepjag are often used interchangeably regardless of which animal was the sire. Numerous lepjags have been bred as animal actors as they are more tractable than jaguars.

The Field No 2887, April 25, 1908, Henry Scherren: "In a paper on the breeding of the larger Felidae in captivity (P.Z.S [Proceedings of the Zoological Society]., 1861, p. 140), A.D. Bartlett stated : "I have more than once met with instances of the male jaguar (F. onca) breeding with a female leopard (F. leopardus). These hybrids were also reared recently in Wombell's well known travelling collection. I have seen some animals of this kind bred between a male black jaguar and a female Indian leopard:-the young partook strongly of the male being almost black.

In Barnabos menagerie (in Spain) a jaguar threw two cubs by a black lion, one resembled the dam, but was somewhat darker, the other was black with the rosettes of the dam showing. (Zoolog. Gart., 1861, 7)" (Since melanism in the panther (leopard) is recessive, the jaguar would either have been black or be a jaguar-black leopard hybrid itself, carrying the recessive gene.) Scherren continued "The same cross, but with the sexes reversed, was noted, by Professor Sacc (F) of Barcelona Zoo (Zool Gart, 1863, 88) "The cub a female was grey: she is said to have produced two cubs to her sire; one like a jaguar, the other like the dam. Herr Rorig expressed his regret that the account of the last two cases mentioned lacked fulness and precision."

Lijagulep

Main article: Congolese Spotted Lion

The female of jagulep or lepjag are fertile, and when one of them is mated to a male lion, the offspring are referred to as lijaguleps. One such complex hybrid was exhibited in the early 1900s under the name of a Congolese Spotted Lion, hinting at some exotic African beast rather than a man-made hybrid.

Jaguar and lion hybrids

Jaglion

Jaguar/Lion Hybrid, Rothschild Museum, Tring

A jaglion or jaguon is the offspring between a male jaguar and a female lion (lioness). A mounted specimen is on display at the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Hertfordshire, England. It has the lion's background color, brown jaguar-like rosettes and the powerful build of the jaguar.

On April 9, 2006, two Jaglions were born at Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, Barrie (north of Toronto), Ontario, Canada. Jahzara (female) and Tsunami (male) were the result of an unintended mating between a black jaguar called Diablo and a lioness called Lola who had been hand-raised together and were inseparable. They were kept apart when Lola came into oestrus. Tsunami is spotted, but Jahzara is a melanistic jaglion due to inheriting the jaguar's dominant melanism gene. It was not previously known how the jaguar's dominant melanism gene would interact with lion coloration genes.

There is an unverifiable report of a lioness/black jaguar cross seen in Maui, Hawaii, in the company of an alleged tiger/black jaguar cross tiguar. The description of the supposed black jaglion matches that of a present-day African lion: a short, thick black mane on its head and around its neck, extending around the ears and underneath the chin; and a puffy gray face. Its body was entirely dark tawny and the tail had a black tuft. Identification of a jaguar/lion hybrid is based on facial features. The animal's tendency to have uneven teeth have also led to them being called Iyanas. The two animals witnessed were probably male and female African lions.^{[citation needed]}

Liguar

A liguar is the offspring of a male Lion and a female Jaguar. Liguars are the most common lion/jaguar hybrid. They are also not as big as most exotic breeds or hybrids.^{[citation needed]}

Leoliguar

When the fertile offspring of a male lion and female jaguar, mates with a leopard, the resulting offspring is referred to as a "leoliguar"

Jaguar and tiger hybrids

At the Altiplano Zoo in the city of San Pablo Apetatlan (near Tlaxcala, México) the crossbreeding of a male Siberian tiger and a female jaguar from the southern Chiapas jungle produced a male tiguar named Mickey. Mickey is on exhibition at a 400 m2 habitat and as of June 2009, is two years old and weighs 180 kg (397 lb). There has been no report of the birth of a healthy hybrid from a male jaguar and female tiger, which would be termed a "jagger".

Leopard and lion hybrids

Leopon

Main article: Leopon

A leopon is the result of breeding a male leopard with a female lion, or lioness. The head of the animal is similar to that of a lion while the rest of the body carries similarities to leopards. Leopons are very rare.

Lipard

A lipard or liard is the proper term for a hybrid of a male lion with a leopardess. It is sometimes known as a reverse leopon. The size difference between a male lion and a leopardess usually makes the mating of the two difficult.

A lipard was born in Schoenbrunn Zoo, Vienna in 1951. The father was a 2 year old 250 kg lion 1.08 m tall at the shoulders and 1.8 m long (excluding tail). The mother was a 3.5 year old leopardess weighing only 38 kg. The female cub was born overnight on 26/27 August 1982 after 92–93 days gestation. The mother began to over-groom the cub and later bit off its tail. The cub was then hand-reared. The parents mated again in November 1982 and the leopardess appeared pregnant, however the lion continued to mate her and they had to be kept apart.

Another lipard was born in Florence, Italy (it is often erroneously referred to as a leopon). It was born on the grounds of a paper mill near Florence to a lion and leopardess acquired from a Rome zoo. Their owner had 2 tigers, 2 lions and a leopardess as pets and did not expect or intend them to breed. The lion/leopard hybrid cub came as a surprise to the owner who originally thought the small spotted creature in the cage was a stray domestic cat. The cub had the body conformation of a lion cub with a large head (a lion trait) but receding forehead (a leopard trait), fawn fur and thick brown spotting. When it reached 5 months old, the owner offered it for sale and set about trying to breed more.

Leoligulor

The male Leopon is in fact a fertile offspring of a male leopard and a female lion. The fertile female liguar, offspring of a female jaguar and male lion, is capable of fertilization by a Leopon. This rare instance results in a Leoligulor.

P L Florio published a report "Birth of a Lion x Leopard Hybrid in Italy" in International-Zoo-News, 1983; 30(2): 4-6

Leopard and tiger hybrids

Dogla

The name dogla is used for a supposedly natural hybrid offspring of a tiger and a leopard or possibly a leopard with aberrant patterns.

Note: The term "panther" used here refers exclusively to the Indian leopard in either spotted or black form.

There is anecdotal evidence in India of offspring resulting from leopard to tigress matings. The supposed hybrids are called "dogla". Indian folklore claims that large male leopards sometimes mate with tigresses. A supposed dogla was reported in the early 1900s. Many reports are probably large leopards with abdominal striping or other striped shoulders and body of a tiger. One account stated, "On examining it, I found it to be a very old male hybrid. Its head and tail were purely those of a panther, but with the body, shoulders, and neck ruff of a tiger. The pattern was a combination of rosettes and stripes; the stripes were black, broad and long, though somewhat blurred and tended to break up into rosettes. The head was spotted. The stripes predominated over the rosettes." The pelt of this hybrid, if it ever existed, was lost. It was supposedly larger than a leopard and, though male, it showed some feminization of features which might be expected in a sterile male hybrid.

K Sankhala's book "Tiger" refers to large troublesome leopards as "adhabaghera" which he translated as "bastard" and suggests a dogla (tiger/leopard hybrid). Sankhala noted that there was a belief amongst local people that tigers and leopards naturally hybridise. There may have been plans to test this theory at New Delhi Zoo during the 1970s.

From "The Tiger, Symbol Of Freedom", edited by Nicholas Courtney: "Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild. There has even been an account of the sighting of an rosettes, the stripes of the tiger being most prominent in the body. The animal was a male measuring a little over eight feet [2.44 m]." This is the same description given by Hicks.

The 1951 book "Mammalian Hybrids" reported that tiger/leopard matings were infertile, producing spontaneously aborted "walnut sized fetuses".

Tigard

A tigard is the hybrid offspring of a male tiger and a leopardess. The only known attempts to mate the two have produced stillborns.

In 1900, Carl Hagenbeck crossed a female leopard with a Bengal tiger. The stillborn offspring had a mixture of spots, rosettes and stripes. In The Field No 2887, April 25, 1908, Henry Scherren wrote "A male tiger from Penang served two female Indian leopards, and twice with success. Details are not given and the story concludes somewhat lamely. 'The leopardess dropped her cubs prematurely, the embryos were in the first stage of development and were scarcely as big as young mice.' Of the second leopardess there is no mention. "

The 1951 book "Mammalian Hybrids" reported that tiger/leopard matings were infertile, producing spontaneously aborted "walnut sized foetuses".

Lion and tiger hybrids

Liger

Main article: Liger

A liger is the offspring between a male lion and a female tiger. It looks like a giant lion with diffused stripes. Ligers are enormous because a male lion has a growth gene and the female (lioness) has a growth inhibitor, but the female tiger has no growth inhibitor. The liger is the largest feline hybrid, but the Siberian Tiger is the largest pure cat.

Tiglon

Main article: Tiglon

A tiglon is the hybrid of a male tiger and a female lion. The tiglon is not as common as the converse hybrid, the liger. Irrespective of what some incorrect beliefs are, the tiglon ends up to be smaller than both her/his parents because male tigers and female lionesses have a growth inhibitor. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tiglons were more common than ligers.

See also

Felid hybrid

External links

• Hybrid Big Cats.
• Detailed information on hybridisation in big cats. Includes tiglons, ligers, leopons and others.
• SHUKER, Karl P.N. (1989). Mystery Cats of the World. Robert Hale (London).
• SHUKER, Karl P.N. (1995). The wonderful thing about tigons (and ligers) [Big cat hybrids, Part 1]. Wild About Animals, vol. 7 (November), pp. 48-49.
• SHUKER, Karl P.N. (1996). Leopons a-leaping [Big cat hybrids, Part 2]. Wild About Animals, vol. 8 (January), pp. 50-51.
• SHUKER, Karl P.N. (1996). Pantigs, pumapards, servicals and suchlike [Big cat hybrids, Part 3]. Wild About Animals, vol. 8 (February), pp. 50-51.