G. W. Exotic Animal Park (part 3 of 3)

This morning, Josh and I went back to see the ligers and tigers again. We went earlier, so that we could get in the cage with the 10-week old cats. The ligers were really wound up, but we managed to get them to lie down near us. Mostly, the cats crawl up on your lap and then start chewing on your shoes or each other. I got some pictures of Josh, and of the ligers chewing on my shoes, or just lounging beside or on us. This is the information I was given by the handlers: Even though they are small cubs now, these are still wild animals, and will some day be huge cats that weigh in excess of 1,000 pounds. The liger shares the characteristics of both the lion and the tiger. Because of its hybrid characteristics, the liger can be larger than a lion, and is possibly the largest cat in the world! Amazingly, while standing on its hind legs, a liger can stand approximately 12 feet tall. That is a big cat!

Okay. Here are the pictures of Josh and I, and the 10-week old liger cubs.

This was a very cool experience! Maybe next time, I can get some pictures of the adult cats, but not quite so close without a zoom lens!

G. W. Exotic Animal Park (part 2 of 3)

To continue my thoughts and our family experience with the G.W. Exotic Animal Foundation, let me spend my efforts posting pictures. Today, we saw the tigers and ligers that travel in support of the foundation. To be accurate, there was only one white Bengal tiger. All of the other large felines were actually ligers. We spent our time with the ligers, as the Bengal was six months old, and much too large to be in close proximity, on the same side of the cage walls, unless you don't value your safety.

What is a liger, you may ask? Putting on my Animal Planet hat for a moment... ahem. (In an official, Don LaFontaine-like, Marlin Perkins-esque voice): The liger is a large feline that results from cross-breeding a female tiger with a male lion. This hybridization produces cubs with more lionistic features than if the reverse pairing had occurred. That would produce a more tigeristic creature known as a tigon. Go here for more information. http://www.liger.org/

We spent time inside the cage with the two-week old liger cubs today. Jericho sat on Mom's lap, and he watched the action, but he didn't become too interactive. Gabriel was timid, but he did bottle-feed a couple of the liger cubs. The little guys are not very steady on their feet yet, and their eyes have not been open long. If you sit down and don't move around too much, within a moment or two, the cubs crawl over and snuggle up against you, just like you are a member of the pride. It was a very cool experience for all of us.

Okay. Enough jawing! Here are a few of the pictures of the 14-day old ligers and Gabriel.