ligons, and tigers and bears, oh my?

After reading an article about a floridian "circus" family, for lack of a better word, that own a large sanctuary, I came across a bit of new information but what perhaps is already a widely known fact: 

LIGERS ARE REAL THINGS.

yeah, this family owns one.  I've heard of zebroids before, but ligers? It's the ultimate cat.  I just thought it was something that that big-toothed, mouth breather said in a movie a couples years back as part of the oh-so-quotable humor of the rest of the film.  But no, ligers are actually living creatures.  And not only are they real, but so are TIGONS.  

Let me explain.  Ligers are the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger.  They are the biggest cat in the world.  Obviously however, it's not very common that a lion and a tigress should meet in the wild and feel so overcome with feline hormones that the lion jumps the tigress and the tigress begs to be pounded by his spiny penis.  It's a captivity thing.

See...super cat!

I wonder who would win if a liger and a sabertooth tiger were locked in battle.  

Oh, and a tigon is, as I'm sure you've guessed, when a male tiger and female lioness mate.  The result is pretty similar but just smaller.  

Now I understand why Napoleon was obsessed.