http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19633192

Awesome-looking little character. Wonder what sort of temperament he'll have?

That's unusual - aren't hybrids usually sterile?
Also, how pointless.

According to wikipedia 'Male tiglons and ligers are sterile, but female hybrids can produce cubs.'


Quite. I'd much rather they put the effort into making sure the 'natural' models don't go extinct.

But so cute! I also love that she's got a little kitty friend

Every time they do things like this they learn a little bit more about genetics and how things work. It's not a massive leap but it could prove useful at some point... according to Red that's a legitimate reason for pretty much anything ....and the reason we have so much useless junk (in my eyes) around the house

Let's face it, in the wild this animal wouldn't exist.
Whilst there is the genetic diversity angle, and I guess an evolutionary curiosity aspect to it, is it right to waste their resources on this when there are so many more species that would benefit?
Zoos and wildlife are two different things. There's a school of thought that zoos should allow their present stocks to die off, and the money be ploughed into preservation in the wild instead.
I'm not sure that's useful - a secure bank of genetics is important, but only viable if the diversity can be maintained.
Which surely isn't the case in most zoos.

I think zoos serve a useful purpose, after all panda's haven't been doing too well at perpetuating their species when left to their own devices, plus there's the human element, there are some species of rhino that only exist in captivity because they've been hunted to extinction in the wild, I think there are some tortoises, frogs and birds that are in the same situation, I agree that some of these hybrids don't exist in the wild, but it doesn't make them wrong, if geneticists can learn about the way animals breed and in some case return them to the wild through active breeding programs then I'm all for it.

Bloody women

* Pulls random item out of work drawer *

Why do you even have that?

Look, do you want it or not?

I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't things like; a broken water pump for a 1994 Astra that Red hasn't owned since 2002, or various bits of memory that don't work, or miles of ratty cabling that are broken somewhere along the line but he's keeping around in case he ever has the time to find the breakage! I don't mind all the computer stuff, I have evidence that it's very handy to have the capability to build a computer from scratch using pretty much the entire contents of his office drawers

It's The Fear. The Fear that the second you throw it out you'll need it. It affects most men

Very convenient, a play friend and snack all in one.

Most zoos do swap their animals to maintain genetic quality of their inmates. Also many parts of the world are still not safe enough for many species to restock the wild populations. Rhino populations are still falling because of poaching.

Science wise it could be useful for recovering rare species but really this should be an ignoble award contender.


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