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t1_j9ewspt wrote

Don't forget they're bred for their skills in magic; I know cuz they're pretty much my favourite animal

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t1_j9eza84 wrote

I'm going to take a stab at this and guess this is from Napoleon Dynamite?

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t1_j9ezw08 wrote

? The liger is his favorite animal but this has nothing to do with the movie.

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t1_j9fkeof wrote

I would have bet my house and children this was the first comment...because it's what I came here to do. Well played.

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t1_j9fiy5z wrote

Did the local wizards use their magic to keep Nessie safe from the Japanese scientists?

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t1_j9fv8fs wrote

Not only Nessie, but all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally.

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t1_j9gimhf wrote

Second napoleon dynamite reference I’ve seen and it is only 11:59 am

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t1_j9g8a5e wrote

The Napoleon Dynamite cartoon deserves so much more love. It's absolutely hilarious.

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t1_j9p8p6d wrote

"Back in '82, I could throw a pigskin a quarter mile."

"Are you serious?"

"Dead Serious."

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t1_j9ffdip wrote

That headline is a little vague.

Cats inherit a size-limiting gene from each parent, but the one from the father is ALWAYS shut down. Cats' size is limited by the gene they inherit from their mother. Female tigers have this growth-limiting gene. The issue is that the tiger growth-limiting gene does not send signals that get received in Ligers, so the gene doesn't work.

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t1_j9iupob wrote

I once read big cats over the past millions of years go extinct because they get too big, need more food, then struggle to adapt to ecological changes. I wonder if lions are more successful because of this gene and the reason for it to stick around

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t1_j9fkxe1 wrote

And the kind of Zoid you don’t want to mess with.

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t1_j9fnvgr wrote

The name's Bit Cloud!

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t1_j9iejd4 wrote

My favorite Zoid series. I have all the episodes downloaded because they're so hard to find haha.

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t1_j9ho4rp wrote

Im the type that would say here kitty kitty and throw it an entire rump steak

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t1_j9f0dye wrote

Let's not forget Tigons exist too

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t1_j9fnkrz wrote

The mighty king of the jungle, meets with the agile king of the city .

Stalking in the shadows of the city, ever ready to peck up any bread crumb on the walkway.

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t1_j9f56om wrote

Are they sterile? If not, you should cross one back with a lion and work on a huge super cat.

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t1_j9fjp2a wrote

despite the repeated assertions that they are sterile, the answer is more complex.

the male hybrid offspring ligers are generally sterile the female ligers are fertile.

so for example a tiliger is the offspring of a male tiger and a female liger.

it seems most of the great cats have some limited interbreeding, so tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, and snow leopards.

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t1_j9gt3gg wrote

Iirc cheetahs bottlenecked so hard at some point their diversity is terrifyingly small.

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t1_j9h2vcl wrote

Ah, just like humans.

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t1_j9h45xg wrote

Worse. They can pretty much take an organ donation from any other cheetah worldwide with no rejection or special considerations

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t1_j9g107h wrote

Is a male tiliger sterile? Would it be possible to breed a stable crossbreed through selective breeding that produces non-sterile males?

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t1_j9g2l0g wrote

if I recall male sterility isn't 100% but I haven't looked at any of the information in a long time.

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t1_j9h9uud wrote

This sounds like some human transmutation shit. Y'all gone fuck around and break the law of equivalent exchange

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t1_j9gsq0m wrote

Unsure about ligers, but some female tygons (reverse parentage from ligers) have in fact been fertile.

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t1_j9f80qn wrote

[deleted]

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t1_j9fbi54 wrote

Not always. Though near enough to 100% that it counts as such I suppose.

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t1_j9fkfvf wrote

not for panthera.

the male ligers are sterile, the females are fertile

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t1_j9fgq0o wrote

Not true. Sometimes the hybrids do just fine, like in the case of tilapia, or apple trees.

It can also be highly sex-dependent. For example, you can cross a domestic cattle bull with a bison cow, and the female offspring will generally be fertile, and the male offspring generally will not be.

However, those hybrid cows can reproduce with male bison, and now almost every bison herd in North America has some fraction of domestic cattle genes in it.

Yak bulls can produce fully fertile offspring of both sexes with Bison cows, but not the other way around.

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t1_j9ficvq wrote

Your example of Apple trees is wrong. Apple trees are spliced to get the strain you want. You could have two apple trees of the same type and the the offspring would be a completely different apple.

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t1_j9fla9u wrote

You’re responding to something I didn’t say. I didn’t say anything about fruit variety propagation. Malus sylvestris crosses with M. sieversii, M. coronaria and a bunch of other species just fine, producing fecund offspring.

Whether you get a palatable apple from the cross is an unrelated question.

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t1_j9fd8gs wrote

No. Though that is an easy rule that works a lot of the time, it’s not a hard rule. Canids, for example, are very good at interspecies breeding and produce viable, non-sterile offspring.

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t1_j9fidm5 wrote

If that were true humans wouldn't exist. Most humans have DNA from Cross breeding with other species of human like Neanderthal and Denosovens

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t1_j9f5unq wrote

Interesting. Female lions bred with male tigers produce smaller ligons due to the growth inhibiting gene in the female that balances male lion growth maximizing genes.

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t1_j9gyf9c wrote

They are also the unhealthiest of big cat species, it should really be illegal to create them. Simply something that should not exist and clearly lead very difficult and uncomfortable lives because of their being bred this way.

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t1_j9ip0k4 wrote

Why are they uncomfortable?

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t1_j9iqscj wrote

Well, now is a good time to read up on the health problems ligers have... Richard Feynman's father used to take him for walks in Central Park. Dick used to ask him what the animals and birds were. His father asked him to observe them and tell his father what he saw. Dick developed a healthy curiosity that developed into a career in physics and involvement with the Manhatten Project. Research and learn, don't just go for the easy answer.

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t1_j9izlwv wrote

Y'know, when you throw a claim out into the ether and someone asks for more information and clarification, give an actual answer. That is, if you were genuinely interested in spreading knowledge versus trying to score internet point.

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t1_j9j1epz wrote

While very unlikely, they could occur naturally. I don't think the phrase should not exist is best to be used here.

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t1_j9kgdni wrote

On what continent do tigers and lions exist side by side? Just asking the important question here. . .

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t1_j9l5vbq wrote

They used to exist side by side, but most of the Asian lions are extinct

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t1_j9f2i9l wrote

So the square-cube law is the limiter than?

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t1_j9fnq8p wrote

Not exactly. The square cube law makes larger life unviable and makes evolution naturally select against animals that are too big. In this case, though, evolution isn't really at play as these are artificially bred animals.

Evidently there is some square cube law wiggle room above the size of large cats, hence ligers don't drop dead from overheating or being unable to stand etc. They may be overall less suited to their environment, though.

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t1_j9h1fs8 wrote

There's also other limiting factors in size too, to be fair. Cancer being one of them, with a lot more cells to undergo regeneration the chance that one "goes rogue" becomes much more likely, especially since life spans typically become longer when a longer growth period is needed.

That being said some animals have developed counter measures like elephants that makes them much lower risk.

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t1_j9ii5k7 wrote

Thanks - I was sure I wasn't being exhaustive.

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t1_j9rp97u wrote

Elephants don't get cancer?

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t1_j9s91b3 wrote

Very rarely, especially so for their size and life span.

They have 20 times the copies of a fairly common gene (P53) which targets cancer cells and this is seemingly pretty common for larger animals including blue whales but elephants specifically have another gene (LIF6) which is controlled by P53 and acts as another layer of defence. It's also a theory that it was a strong contributing factor as to why elephants got as big as they are because of the (extremely vague) timing.

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t1_j9hbqeg wrote

Probably the natural aging and metabolism.

There have been far bigger predators so it's not a limit.

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t1_j9feaal wrote

That explains the size of the liger in the video from earlier - what a unit!

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t1_j9gq3ks wrote

And the poor kitties get horrible health problems as a result. Breeding ligers is cruel.

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t1_j9gyxck wrote

Have to agree, doing something like this deliberately should be outlawed. These animals will never have anything like a normal and healthy life.

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t1_j9gzui5 wrote

Ligers make me sad. They can't move around much because of their size.

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t1_j9gocfe wrote

If they're largest big cat, then they're... the largest cat?

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t1_j9grwq0 wrote

"Big cat" means members of the genus Panthera. Specifically: Tigers, Lions, Leopards, Jaguars, and Snow Leopards (and I guess for the purposes of this discussion mixes of those).

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t1_j9hgkrd wrote

There are reports of tigers that size. On an island that hunt buffalo. We’re talking lean mean fuckers, lions you do NOT want near.

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t1_j9gigcy wrote

These ligers look significantly less inbred than the ones I'd see when I was a kid.

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t1_j9hm11e wrote

Me TOO! I’ve always wondered why the Ligers I have seen have all been SO big. WOW. Thanks.

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t1_j9i9ac3 wrote

The big cat sanctuary near me has a liger, he's absolutely massive and a beautiful cat.

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t1_j9ichnu wrote

So they AREN'T bred for their skills in magic?

​

What a rip off.

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t1_j9jaoxi wrote

Dad why you hook up with tiger ?

Lion dad: she was BIG my boy

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