Cool, cryptozoology! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Mutant big cats ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thylacine The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), formerly known as the Tasmanian Tiger or the Tasmanian Wolf, was a large carnivorous marsupial native to Australia. Although only one of many Australian mammals to have become extinct following European settlement of the continent, it is the largest and by far the most famous.
Like the tigers and wolves of other continents (both unrelated placental carnivores), the Thylacine was a top-level predator, and in size and general form quite closely resembled the Northern Hemisphere predators it was originally named after.
The Thylacine resembled a large, short-haired dog with a stiff tail, which smoothly extended from the body like that of a kangaroo. It was about 100 to 130 cm long including its tail of about 50 to 65 cm, and had a very large gape. It was a yellowish-brown in colour with sixteen to eighteen dark stripes on its back and rump, hence its common name: "Tasmanian tiger."
In Tasmania, where there were no dingos, the Thylacine survived until the 1930s before it was wiped out by farmers, government-funded bounty hunters and, in its final years, collectors for overseas museums. The last confirmed wild Thylacine sighting was in 1932, and the last captive died in the Hobart Zoo on September 6, 1936.
Although there is no reasonable doubt that the Thylacine is extinct, sightings are still occasionally claimed in both Tasmania and other parts of Australia.
In March 2005, Australian news magazine The Bulletin, as part of its 125th anniversary, offered a $1.25 million reward for the safe capture of a live Thylacine. When the offer closed at the end of June 2005 no-one had produced any evidence of the animal's existence. An offer of $1.75 million has subsequently been offered by a Tasmanian tour operator, Stewart Malcolm, but this is also unclaimed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hybrids:
Liger Cross between a male lion and a female tiger. Biggest type of big cat, males can grow twice the size and weight of a Siberian tiger, the largest non-extinct, naturally-occurring feline (which means the size of a poney and a weight around half a ton). The difference of size with both parental species is because the liger inherits the growth-promoting gene frome the male lion, unfetered by a growth-inhibiting gene usually transmitted by the female lion.
A cross between a male tiger and a female lion is called a Tigon. They grow smaller than lions or tigers and often weight around 150 kg.
Wolphin Cross between a bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus (mother), and a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens (father). Although they have been reported to exist in the wild, there are currently only two in captivity, both at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />