Liger!

[MrToast]

Originally Posted by DanielBCR

I am strictly opposed to any such hybrid animal. On another forum I am on, I have said zealously that hybridizing is bad. In my opinion, this is an example of humans sticking their noses where they don't belong and playing god/god-like-figure. This is one reason that humans are contributing to one of the largest mass-extinctions in the history of earth. Say a liger got out. Think of the environmental consequences of the tiger's of lion's habitat. Tigers are already disappearing rapidly. We don't need a catalyst for its destruction.

-Daniel

What sort of "environmental consequences" are you thinking of? Extreme crossbreeding? That's not a problem. Hybrid animals (ie chimera) are sterile. For example, a mule. The mule hasn't caused "environmental consequences" AFAIK....

Dave

[Wayne C.]

I must have missed something but they've been making Ligers and Tigons for years. I believe Siegfried and Roy and B&B Circus even had some in their acts at one time.

Of course these are artificial hybrids made in captivity. I think that they are sometimes fertile though- unlike most hybrids.

Oddly, there is an overpopulation of most of the common big cats in zoos and people have been trying to keep them as housepets a lot recently. I'd hate to change THAT litter box.

Rather than worry about hybrids escaping and overrunning the natural world I'd be more worried that there is a natural world left for them to overrun. Habitat loss is the number one destroyer of species, especially the big predators.

Frankly, snakes eat less and don't shred you when they get angry....

And of course Tigon makes a nice elastic tubing.....

WC

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by MrToast

What sort of "environmental consequences" are you thinking of? Extreme crossbreeding? That's not a problem. Hybrid animals (ie chimera) are sterile. For example, a mule. The mule hasn't caused "environmental consequences" AFAIK....

Dave

Actually they can reproduce though the contraversy involves human/nonhuman chimera's more than anything. On the one hand it's a good thing because it allows us to understand ourselves better but on the other hand I don't want anything gaining increased intelligence or worst because we stuck some cells in the animal.Article