The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a female tiger. A liger resembles a lion with diffused stripes. They are the largest cats in the world, although the Siberian Tiger is the largest "pure" taxon. Ligers and tigers enjoy swimming, whereas lions do not. A similar hybrid, the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion is called a tigon.

The liger is a cat born from the breeding of a male lion and a female tiger. This combination produces an offspring with more lionistic features than if the reverse pairing had occured. That would produce a more tigeristic creature known as a tigon. Both are members of genus Panthera. There is no scientific name assigned to this animal because of its human assisted ancestory.

Rare reports have been made of tigresses mating with lions in the wild. Such mating may have occurred when, in uncommon circumstances, tigers were forced into ranges inhabited by the Asiatic Lion,Panthera leo persica . However, since the present-day ranges of wild lions and tigers no longer overlap, it is generally held that such a combination of species would occur very rarely.

A liger looks like a giant lion with muted stripes but like thier tiger ancestors, ligers like swimming. This goes against the nature of a lion but is what makes creature special. It gets the best of both parents. That is not always the case though with crossbreeds. Sometimes the results go the other way and the animal gets the worst of both parents. That would suck!