A liger is a rare hybrid animal, the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger. Ligers exist only in captivity, where lions and tigers (which live on different continents in the wild) can meet and breed. They inherit traits from both parents: a liger has faint tiger stripes on a tawny, lion-colored coat, and often grows larger than either parent species.

In fact, ligers are the largest cats in the world. While male lions typically weigh around 420 pounds and male tigers around 500 pounds, male ligers can reach over 900 pounds. This happens because ligers don't inherit certain growth-limiting genes that normally keep lions and tigers from growing too large.

The opposite hybrid, a tigon (offspring of a male tiger and female lion), is much rarer and doesn't grow to unusual sizes. Ligers gained pop culture fame from the movie Napoleon Dynamite, where the main character declares them “pretty much my favorite animal.” While ligers are fascinating examples of what happens when different species interbreed, most zoologists and conservationists discourage breeding them and focus instead on protecting endangered lions and tigers in their natural habitats.