What Do You Get When You Cross a Lion with a Tiger?

A liger, that’s what.  No kidding: you get a big cat with a mane and faint stripes that likes to play in the water.  National Geographic News has a special article, with photos, about ligers.

This is offered without much comment, just for those who want to learn about something unusual in the animal kingdom, and what it means about species, taxonomy, genetics, etc.  A mule is another example of this kind of thing.
    Some of our readers pointed out a statement in the article that qualifies for nomination as Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: “Lion-tiger mating occurs in captivity.  But it does not happen in the wild, probably for the same reason humans do not breed with gorillas or chimps.”  Don’t visualize that, now; is NG suggesting that bestiality is wrong only on pragmatic grounds?  Don’t tell the Koreans or they will want to experiment with this.  Pretty soon there will be debates about humilla rights.  Better keep certain people out of the primate cages in the San Francisco Zoo.  Aside from ethical amorality, NG seems to be assuming, without warrant, that such a thing is even biologically possible, or on the same level as liger or mule hybridization.  It makes an implicit Darwinistic assumption that the line between humans and chimps is blurry.
    The next paragraph mentions a biological reason that is not helpful for Charlie’s little story: “‘Crossing the species line’ does not generally occur in the wild, because ‘it would result in diminished fitness of the offspring,’ said Ronald Tilson, director of conservation at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.”  Well, there you have it.  Fitness is maintained by living things reproducing after their kind.  Even staunch creationists accept diversification within created kinds.  A liger represents a blending of pre-existing characteristics, not the origination of new ones.  Turn ligers loose in the wild and they would probably revert to the parent forms, or go extinct.  There is enough genetic variability within the Felidae, however, to account for a fair amount of the diversity seen in today’s cat populations since the creation.  Habitat differences can sort out characters, creationists agree.  They just deny that environments make cats “emerge” from mythological precats or protopussies.