page_title: Liger
section_title: Records
hierarchical_section_title: Liger / Size and growth / Records
caption_attribution_description: Panthera leo x Panthera tigris English: A liger and its trainer, Dr. Bhagavan Antle, at a Renaissance Festival in Massachusetts, USA, October 2005.
context_page_description: The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the similar hybrid called the tigon, and is the largest of all known extant felines. They enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tigons.
context_section_description: Hercules, the largest non-obese liger, is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest living cat on Earth, weighing 418.2 kg (922 lb). Hercules was featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, Inside Edition, and in a Maxim article in 2005, when he was only three years old and already weighed 408.25 kg (900 lb).
  The Valley of the Kings Animal Sanctuary in Wisconsin had a male liger named Nook who weighed over 550 kg (1,213 lb).
  To compare, the records for the lion and tiger in captivity are under 1,100 pounds (500 kg).
caption: Hercules the liger and his trainer Bhagavan Antle.
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