The liger is the world's largest big cat, growing up to 12 feet long and 1,200 lbs. Ligers resemble large lions with stripes; like tigers, they are comfortable in the water. Subscribe to The Week ...

But many of the crossbreeds live healthy lives, and some have even produced offspring—a female liger in a Russian zoo mated with a male lion and gave birth to a so-called liliger in 2012.

A flare-up of Mexican drug cartel violence left 11 bodies dumped outside the border town of Ojinaga and the seizure of a liger kept as an exotic big cat pet in the backyard of a house, Chihuahua ...