Once the largest felines living today were tigers. The maximum weight for the largest representative of this species, the male Amur tiger, has been reliably established - 320 kg. However, there is another animal, significantly larger than the tiger in size and weight, which is considered the heaviest and largest cat on the planet.
Heavyweight hybrids
There are several large feline hybrids in the world: liger, taigon, liligr, taligr. Of these, the largest liger is a hybrid of a lion and a tigress. In the wild, these hybrids have not been recorded, because outside the walls of zoos and circuses, lions and tigers are almost never met. The largest male ligers at present are Sudan, almost four meters tall and Hercules, 3 meters 70 cm tall. The latter weighs just over 400 kg. However, the largest recorded individual entered the Guinness Book of Records with a weight of almost 800 kg. Male ligers are sterile - they do not give birth to offspring, unlike them, females can reproduce well, they are the origin of hybrids of liligers and taligras, which are much smaller than their parents.
Kiara, the daughter of the ligress Zita and the lion Samson, was born at the Novosibirsk Zoo in 2004, she became the first ligress in the world. When Zita refused to feed Kiara, domestic cat Dasha took up raising and feeding the baby.
It is noteworthy that all representatives of large feline species belong to the genus Panther. However, the panther itself is not an independent species, because like albinos, panthers are just leopards and jaguars with a rare black and even less white color. Their body weight can reach 115 kg, against the background of handsome ligers this rare representative of the feline family looks like a kitten.
The largest domestic cat
The largest breeds of domestic cats are Maine Coon and Regdol. Some representatives of these animal breeds weigh between eight and twelve kilograms, which puts them in the first place among all domestic cats that have ever existed. The fluffy huge Maine Coon looks like a fabulous Bayun cat, but has a very sociable and affectionate disposition, he loves his family to adoration and is wary of strangers.
Domestic cats resemble Domestic Lynx and Pallas' cat in appearance, large enough representatives can reach up to 6 kilograms. If the Domestic Lynx adapts to keeping in the house, then Manul is an exceptionally wild cat.
Largest extinct cat
The largest representatives of the extinct feline are the cave lion, miracinonyx and saber-toothed tiger. However, these "dinosaurs" were not gigantic in size and were much smaller than modern tigers and ligers. Scientists are confident that ligers are an extinct species revived in an artificial environment. Perhaps earlier, lions and tigers were not separated by such great distances as they are now, and joint offspring could appear as a result of the natural meeting of representatives of these species.
