• Question: Why cant ligers reproduce?

    Asked by sonicthehedgehog to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 3 Jul 2012:


      Great question. I had to look up what a liger was though; I’m learning a lot from you guys!

      So, it’s pretty unusual for two different species to reproduce (usually for physical reasons). The only other thing I can think of is a mule.

      Anyway, when they do manage, each cell has chromosomes from the daddy (say lion) and mummy (say tigress). These are probably different shapes and there probably be a different number of chromosomes. However, they have enough ‘blueprint’ between them to build a viable animal. However, when baby liger wants to produce sperm or egg cells (meiosis), the original cell splits into four (so four eggs or four sperm cells) each of which are made from a mix of DNA from lion and tigress. The mix doesn’t fit together well because they are different sizes and shapes and so they can’t produce anything viable. And no sperm or eggs means no babies.

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 4 Jul 2012:


      I don’t think that I can add to Tom’s answer.

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