A tigon is the result of cross breeding a male tiger with a female lion.

This does
not occur in the wild because of the territorial differences of the two cats but
breeding between the two cats does occur. When mixed in captivity breeding will
naturally happen and the resulting offspring will be a tigon.

Tigons can exhibit characteristics of both parents: they can have both spots from
the mother and stripes from the father. Any mane that a male tigon may have will
appear shorter and less noticeable than a lion's mane and is closer in type to the
ruff of a male tiger. The basic colour of lion/tiger hybrids is pale ochre to rust
yellow-brown, more intensive than in the lion, but paler than in the tiger and
with tiger striping.

A tigon is often smaller than either a lion or tiger though some have attained or
exceeded the size of the smaller parent. They may be less robust than either
parent. There is less interest in them because they are less spectacular than
ligers, they often weigh around 150 kilograms. The actual size and appearance
depends on which subspecies are bred together and how the genes interact.

RECORDS OF TIGONS
Here is a record of tigons at different locations recently.
1. There were 2 known living tigons in 1976; both in Calcutta zoo: a 5 year old
female named Rudrani and her 3 year old sister Ranjini. The zoo's first tigon was
Rudhrani, born in 1971, was mated to an Asiatic lion and produced 7 li-tigons in
her lifetime. Some of these reached impressive sizes - a li-tigon named Cubanacan
(died April 12th, 1991) was believed to weigh at least 363 kg, stood 52
inches/1.32m at the shoulder and 11.5ft/3.5 m total length (1994: GBWR "largest
litigin").

2. Tigons were also once kept at a French safari park on the estate of an
(unidentified) aristocrat. When female tigon Noelle was born at Shambala in 1978.

3. In December 2000, Australia's National Zoo in Canberra acquired a brother

and sister pair of tigons. Aster (male) and Tangier (female) had been bred
accidentally in 1987 at a circus to a Bengal tiger and a lioness. They were hand-
raised and spent their first several years at a private facility.

4. In August 2001, Shanghai Safari Park had 4 tigon cubs from an accidental
pairing of African lioness "Huanhuan" and Siberian tiger "Huihui". Unfortunately,
none survived.