He is the unintentional result of two enormous big cats living close together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already dwarfs both his parents.

"Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle. "We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger."  These two cats don't normally have the opportunity to breed in the wild, as most lions live in Africa and most tigers in Asia.

50 mph runner... Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions. In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one another. But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II.

Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion mother. Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical characteristics of the tiger.

Look at the size of the head on this  thing.. :o)



Check out the fangs - like pre-historic days



Male (right) and female (left) ligers

Additional information for you animal lovers and even those who aren't:

(Panthera is a genus of the family Felidae (the cats), which contains four well-known living species: the Tiger, the Lion, the Jaguar, and the Leopard.)

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.