Tiger-Lion Coexistence in Eurasia between Middle Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs

[Sanju]

If a liger was raised by lions, in the wild, could it be a successful member in a pride of lions?

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Ketan Pande

Very few people know this.
First of all, there are almost 1/1000000 chances (almost impossible) of Liger getting born in wild? And there is an amazing reason behind it, and it will make you respect nature more.

Well, many people don’t know that in India, at the Gir Forest, a wild tiger was spotted, making it the only place (state) in the world where tiger, lion and leopard co-exist for some time.

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So,

If a young lion in Gir forest who is abandoned by pride, encounters and lives with a tigress, and everything goes smooth between them, will they mate, and will liger be born?

The answer is simple,

Quote: Wrote:NOOOOOOO!!

And that’s where Mother Nature comes into the picture. Both of them belongs to different lineages in Panthera. Lions don't even breed with Leopards who are the closest living relatives to them.

If lion, tiger could breed when they coexisted in the past, then seeing Leopon and Lipard is common in Africa or Gir as Leopard is the closest relative to Lion.

Very few people know that there are 7 Barriers of Nature that prevent "interspecies" crossing.

So here are these 7 Barriers or "Unconditional Instincts" of nature which will "only" promote species to breed with themselves in the wild: (An man won't like to **** a chimp even they are closely related species, even becomes picky to chose mate in his own race). Every species has their own sexual dimorphism and their own methods of choosing mates in their own species. Some have special adaptations and rituals for that.

1. Behaviour barrier

Both animals have different behaviour, while one prefers solitary life and other prefers living in pride. This mismatch of behaviour will reduce the mating to a greater extent.

2. Mating Barrier

Suppose, an exception occurs, and both tigress and lion become friends. But, a sexual ritual mismatch will not make both of them breed. The possibility will be reduced,

3. Sex-organs Barrier:

Still, an exception occurs and both them think of mating with each other, then sex-organs mismatch will avoid the successful breeding.

4. Biological Barrier:

Now, if a case where both tigress and lion surpass above barriers and mate. Then the semen will not match with ovaries and chromosomal recombination abnormalities occurrence is high, sometimes chromosome number doesn't match. Thus, seizing the successful breeding.

5. Development Barrier:

If all the above barriers are somehow crossed, then the development of fetus will not take place.

6. Misidentification Barrier:

Still, a fetus comes into the picture, then the mother body will not be able to identify the fetus, as it is abnormal. Thus, mothers body will not provide nutrition to the fetus and it will die.’

7. Communication Barrier:

Both are different species, and have quite different Vocalizations/Body language and Scent or Odour which prevents inter-species communication or territorial behavior.

8. Immunity barrier:

Suppose in the extremely rare situation somehow a liger is born, then the body will be confused as it will not complete of any of the parents. Thus, it will have low immunity, and it will die at a young age due to aberrations in genetic or somatically in morphology or physiology. And, if a liger still reaches adulthood, then it will be sexually inactive (sterile) as it will have different penis and semen. Thus, the offspring of liger will never be born and bloodline of hybrid ends.

P.S. These are all for wild animals, don't compare this with Captive Animal Hybrids or Breeding.

And let me tell you,

In wild, it’s next to impossible to cross top 3 barriers. Thus, liger was/will never be born, so it’s unnecessary to think about its interaction with the lion pride.

The Liger that you see in captivity is made successful via genetic recombination and other manipulations to make it successful for various benefits in attracting tourist attention.

So for now, let’s assume that it's impossible.

As both are top predators in sympatric competition, they will avoid one another as it is fatal for interaction and mating is out of equation.

But nature has always surprised us, so one day we might see an exception and that’s why I said at the start that there are 1/1000000 chances of its success.

Even it happened, the offspring won't survive long...

This is not only for these two animals. These are basic and fundamental principles for any living organism or species to be like a species not hybrid, if all animals can hybridize then no animal looks same as other, every animal will be unique and can't reproduce after and it will be the end of life on earth but that didn't happen.. Our world is natural world with "species" not Pokemon world with Pokemons and Hybrids.

Dawin's finches for example, considering Geospiza genus, all species in the genus are endemic to the Galápagos Islands. Together with related genera, they are collectively known as Darwin's finches.

There are extant 9 SPECIES. Geospiza conirostris, Geospiza difficilis, Geospiza septentrionalis, Geospiza acutirostris, Geospiza fortis, Geospiza fuliginosa, Geospiza magnirostris, Geospiza scandens and Geospiza propinqua. All are endemic and live in Galápagos Islands. But there are no hybrids, they don't interbreed.

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American alligator and Croc don't inter-breed either...(They too are sympatric and apex predators of similar sizes living in the same place i.e.., Co-occurring or coexisting)

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They too compete for food "not territories". They too fight to reduce competition but in the end, that don't impact their population as both avoid most, fight least.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Mortality rate between inter-species competition and other natural causes (except man) balances natality rate of population, that's how the world's predators coexist.
Or should I say Cougar-Jaguar coexistence... examples are countless. Reply