A private zoo in Taiwan may be in hot water. About a week or so ago, there were a couple of the cutest babies born there. The problem is - these are baby ligers. They are a cross between a tiger and a lion. The government of Taiwan forbids cross breeding of animals.
The keeper of this zoo said that the babies came as a complete surprise to him. The tigress and the lion have lived in the same cage since they were young but "nothing happened." According to the story at Discovery News, there are only about 10 surviving ligers in the world.
What is your take on this issue? It sounds to me like negligence on the part of the zookeeper may be part of the story. I do think it's also possible he tried to have these babies born... It also sounds to me that these are not a good cross, as they aren't in the wild naturally! They are cute babies though! (Discovery story here, photo from AP)
--Tammy
I always have conflicted feelings about any animals in zoos...I agree that education and conservation are key, but when we start messing around with an animal's natural state, it gets tricky. I don't think that Mother Nature intended to have "ligers" (although I could be wrong).
Posted by: Dana | August 27, 2010 at 01:56 PM