Not exactly magic, but pretty unnatural: Liger on the Strip

By Brendan Buhler

Friday, April 18, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Enter the liger.

Yes, Las Vegas is getting a liger, potentially the most terrifying hybrid to stride the Strip since French-Canadian singer Celine Dion.

(“Enter the Liger,” by the way, would be an excellent title for a kung fu flick. Picture it now, the nameless pupil in a training montage, kicking tallboy cans of Bud out of the air, cans hurled by wise Sensei Billy Jack. Anyway ...)

What is a liger? It’s the offspring of a male lion and a tigress. A male tiger and a lioness produce a tigon, a far less awesome animal. Why? Because a tigon is smaller than either a lion or a tiger, while a liger is bigger than either of its parents, weighing up to 1,000 pounds. Ligers are supposed to enjoy swimming, like tigers, and be social animals, like lions. Also inherited from the tiger side is the ability to make chuffing noises.

You will not see a major liger breeding program anytime soon, however. One reason is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums frowns on interbreeding species. Beyond that, you can’t breed ligers from existing ligers. Male ligers are sterile as mules.

And yet ligers have a certain place in pop culture. Napoleon Dynamite, the red-’fro-sporting star character in the 2004 movie of the same name, says the liger is “pretty much my favorite animal.” He also says a liger is “bred for its skills in magic.”

Well, maybe.

Our particular liger, Tilli, is the newest star of Dirk Arthur’s twice-an-afternoon magic show at the Tropicana. Arthur’s “Xtreme Magic” features the genial illusionist making people and things disappear and big cats appear. Including, now, a liger.

Tilli the liger walks onstage, led by Arthur. She leaps onto a table and eats a cube of meat. Arthur talks about ligers and then walks Tille back offstage. The whole thing is over in maybe 30 seconds, and Tilli, who is only 6 months old, is, at 85 pounds, about the size of a large golden retriever.

Ladies and gentlemen, the liger!

But then again, Tilli is still learning show business. And growing.