It’s not every day that the zoo greets a new animal — each and every new member is a special occasion for the zookeepers and the guests alike. However, this particular new arrival (or should we say, arrivals) is something even bigger to celebrate: These four cubs are unlike any that the zoo or the world have seen before. They’re four liger cubs, spawned from the not-so-unlikely but rare pairing of a lion and tiger. You may have thought these animals were made up by Napoleon Dynamite or a fantasy novelist, but they’re definitely a part of the animal kingdom, despite the fact that there’s not very many of them. These four new cubs are not only adorable and rare ligers, but they have a special quality that makes them even more special than the rest of their kind. Meet the new cubs and find out what makes them so unique in the story below.Four new ligers have just joined the world, and it’s all thanks to this beautiful pair — a white lion and a white tiger.
Their birth makes them the rarest big cats on the planet. At six weeks old, they already weigh about 15 pounds — and they gain about a pound per day.
There are only around 300 white lions and 1,200 white tigers left in the world, so the cubs’ father, Ivory and mother, Saraswati, are extremely rare as well — not to mention massive.
None of the other ligers are white like these little guys.
Apollo is the smallest, who his owners say behaves more like a house kitten, demanding to be cuddled all the time.
Something tells us that none of these cubs will have to fight for attention — they’re all just so darn cute.
The cubs’ uncle, Hercules, is officially the world’s largest cat at 922 lbs and 131 inches long and is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records. The keepers at the zoo say that it’s possible for one of the cubs to reach this size, too.
