The liger is a big cat hybrid, the interbred offspring of a male lion (Panthera leo) and a female tiger (Panthera tigris) (tigress). It only happens in captivity because lions and tigers rarely meet in the wild. They are much larger than both parents, some reaching nearly a thousand pounds. For a long time, the liger was thought to be sterile, but a ligress in a Russian zoo in 2011 had given birth to a litter of cubs fathered by a lion. These cubs are called "liligers".
It has an opposite in the tigon, the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion (lioness).