See Hercules up there? He’s yet another Guinness World Record holder. In his case, he’s the largest living cat on earth, and a wonderful example of the principle of hybrid vigor (the principle behind the world’s largest housecat breed). His father was a lion, and his mother was a tiger, which means Herc is a liger, the largest member of the big cat family. At 12 feet long and over 900 pounds of muscle and teeth, Hercules is big even as ligers go. Guinness has a whole page devoted to him!
Here’s an appropriate quote from Napoleon Dynamite concerning the liger:
Deb: What are you drawing?
Napoleon Dynamite: A liger.
Deb: What’s a liger?
Napoleon Dynamite: It’s pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic.
Like most of what Napoleon says, his liger facts are exaggerations. Ligers generally aren’t bred, they’re accidental and generally unwanted, because a liger the size of Hercules eats 25 pounds of meat and drinks a gallon of water every day. At least Herc has a home and caregivers to keep him from a career as a B-movie megacat.
Tags: exotic animals, crossbreeds, Hercules the liger, ligers, world’s largest liger, giant carnivores, unusual animals, big cats, giant cats, Guinness World Records, the largest living cat on earth