Editing Liger (section)

==History==
The history of lion–tiger hybrids dates to at least the early 19th century in [[India]]. In 1798, [[Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire]] (1772–1844) made a colour plate of the offspring of a lion and a tiger. The name "liger", a [[portmanteau]] of ''lion'' and ''tiger'', was coined by the 1930s.<ref>"When the sire is a lion the result is termed a Liger, whilst the converse is a Tigon." Edward George Boulenger, ''World Natural History'', B. T. Batsford ltd., 1937, p. 40.</ref> "Ligress" is used to refer to a female liger, on the model of "tigress".

In 1825, [[G. B. Whittaker]] made an engraving of liger cubs born in 1824.<ref name=messybeast2012/> The parents and their three liger offspring are also depicted with their trainer in a 19th-century painting in the [[Naïve art|naïve style]].

Two liger cubs born in 1837 were exhibited to King [[William IV of the United Kingdom|William IV]] and to his successor Queen [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]. On 14 December 1900 and on 31 May 1901, [[Carl Hagenbeck]] wrote to zoologist [[James Cossar Ewart]] with details and photographs of ligers born at the Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg in 1897.

In ''Animal Life and the World of Nature'' (1902–1903), A. H. Bryden described Hagenbeck's "lion-tiger" hybrids:

<blockquote>It has remained for one of the most enterprising collectors and naturalists of our time, Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, not only to breed but to bring successfully to a healthy maturity, specimens of this rare alliance between those two great and formidable Felidae, the lion and tiger. The illustrations will indicate sufficiently how fortunate Mr. Hagenbeck has been in his efforts to produce these hybrids. The oldest and biggest of the animals shown is a hybrid born on the 11th May 1897. This fine beast, now more than five years old, equals and even excels in his proportions a well-grown lion, measuring as he does from nose tip to tail 10 ft 2 inches in length, and standing only three inches less than 4 ft at the shoulder.  A good big lion will weigh about 400 lb [...] the hybrid in question, weighing as it does no less than 467 lb, is certainly the superior of the most well-grown lions, whether wild-bred or born in a menagerie. This animal shows faint striping and mottling, and, in its characteristics, exhibits strong traces of both its parents. It has a somewhat lion-like head, and the tail is more like that of a lion than of a tiger. On the other hand, it has no trace of mane. It is a huge and very powerful beast.<ref>Bryden, A.H. (contributor). "Animal Life and the World of Nature" (1902–1903, bound partwork).</ref></blockquote>

In 1935, four ligers from two litters were reared in the Zoological Gardens of [[Bloemfontein]], South Africa. Three of them, a male and two females, were still living in 1953. The male weighed {{Convert|340|kg|lb|0|abbr=on}} and stood a foot and a half (45&nbsp;cm) taller than a full grown male lion at the shoulder.

In 1948, LIFE magazine pictured "Shasta," a liger conceived and born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City; its (future) parents had been rubbing noses through adjoining cage bars, and were permitted to cohabitate. The two-pound cub was "almost completely neglected by its mother, but the zoo's superintendent took it home and raised it, eventually returning it to the Zoo in a cage across from its parents' (separate) cages.<ref>"Liger." LIFE, 20 September 1948, 109.</ref>

Although ligers are more commonly found than tigons today, in ''At Home in the Zoo'' (1961), Gerald Iles wrote "For the record I must say that I have never seen a liger, a hybrid obtained by crossing a lion with a tigress. They seem to be even rarer than tigons."<ref>Iles, G. ''At Home in the Zoo'' (1961).</ref>