Rostov-on-Don - An extremely rare cross between a tiger and a lion has been born in a travelling zoo in southern Russia, one of only a few dozen of the animals believed to exist.
Named Tsar, the two-month-old liger cub is the offspring of a tigress Princess and lion Caesar, zoo director Erik Airapetyan told AFP.
"They have lived together for a long time and know each other well. When the tigress was in heat, she didn't have any other choice," he said.
The cub has the beige fur of a lion and the stripes of a tiger and is currently being fed on milk from one of the zoo's goats.
Ligers can grow to be the biggest cat in the animal kingdom, weighing more than 400kg.
A liger called Hercules in the United States is currently listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest feline in the world, at a weight of 418kg and length of 3.33m.