Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] pretty much my favorite animal

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Regarding my explanation (below) of greater size in liger than in tigon: 
David Haig was at the meeting in Storrs last week, so I asked about this 
at the end of his talk.  He had essentially the explanation I give below 
but he added some facts about lion mating habits versus tiger mating 
habits.  Basically, the greater male-male competition in the lion world 
has important implications.  He said that it looked like a classic case to 
him and he wants to do some research on ligers.  I think that probably 
means molecular genetic research.  It will be interesting to read his 
findings if he ever does that work.

Mike


On Sat, 10 Jun 2006, Mike Miller wrote:

> On Sat, 10 Jun 2006, Jonathan King wrote:
>
> > http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/liger.asp#photo
> >
> > It doesn't say anything about his magical skills, though.  And, I have no 
> > idea how/why this behemoth is so much larger than his non-hybrid parents.
>
>
> I read about that a few weeks ago.  The fascinating thing is that the liger 
> (offspring of male lion and female tiger) is much bigger than the tigon 
> (offspring of male tiger and female lion).  Apparently, ligers are much 
> bigger than their parents, but tigons are not larger than their parents and 
> sometimes are considerably smaller.  Tigons are rarer than ligers, so less is 
> known about them.
>
> My guess is that this imprinting effect has something to do with the same 
> kind of batttle of the sexes that has been seen in other animals.  In this 
> battle, the male tries to make bigger offspring even though this can be 
> harmful to the female.  The female therefore tries to make them smaller. (All 
> of this "trying" is happening at a molecular level in their gametes.) There 
> has probably been more of a prolonged battle in the lion than in the tiger. 
> Thus, when the male lion mates with the female tiger, his gametes win the 
> battle and produce a larger offspring, but when a male tiger mates with a 
> female lion, the offspring is much smaller.  Anyway, it kinda makes sense and 
> this is the way I would begin to approach the problem.  Natural selection has 
> created different breeding/rearing systems in the two felines and that may 
> explain the difference in imprinting.  David Haig's work on this topic (in 
> mice) is extremely interesting stuff - here are some news articles:
>
> http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/bgnews/2000/msg00157.html
>
> The first one from NY Times is good and recent.
>
>
> From the article liger article on Snopes.com:
>
>   He eats about 20 lbs. of meat (beef or chicken) per day, and he can
>   consume up to 100 lbs of food in one sitting.
>
> That is a very expensive pet!!
>
> Mike

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