I thought it was just an imaginary thing, but my coworker told me today that there are such animals as ligers, and that yes, in fact they are a mix of a lion and tiger. For more info see the description in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger
Specifically, they are the offspring that result when a male lion is mated with a female tiger (a male tiger mated with a female lion produces a "tigon"). I guess due to genetic factors, ligers actually grow to be bigger than either lions or tiger. I'm not sure whether they are actually bred for their skills in magic though.
Nevertheless, this blew my mind. I gotta say, those things are pretty cool indeed. I think I am gonna have to make it my favorite animal as well.
