The thorny ethics of hybrid animals

Ligers, the hybrid offspring of lions and tigers, may sound like mythological chimeras but they are, in fact, real.

The creatures are primarily man-made, since the habitats of these two big cats overlaps only in India’s Gir Forest. Their mashup names belie their origin stories, with an offspring taking the first half of its name from its father and the second half from its mother. Endless fun can be had with this naming convention:

Lion father + tiger mother = liger. Tiger father + lion mother = tigon. Leopard father + jaguar mother = jagleop. Lion father + jagleop mother = lijagleop.

The fun drains out of this exercise, however, when you learn of the health issues associated with these hybrids. Ligers, for example, grow big… too big for their own organs, in fact.=read more