White tiger

For other uses, see White tiger (disambiguation).

White Tiger

White tigers are individual specimens of the ordinary orange tiger (Panthera tigris), with a genetic condition that causes paler colouration of the normally orange fur (they still have black stripes). The condition is well-documented in the Bengal tiger subspecies (Panthera tigris tigris or P. t. bengalensis), may also have occurred in captive Siberian tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), and has been reported historically in several other subspecies. White pelage is most closely associated with the Bengal, or Indian subspecies. Tigers in India are recognized as a single subspecies, but within India, and throughout the tiger's geographic range they tend to be smaller, darker, and more densely striped the further south they are found, the Sumatran and now extinct Javan and Bali races being the smallest. The Bengal tiger is the definitive tiger-the species type. For many years it was the kind most commonly seen in the West. It was the standard issue zoo and circus tiger, and it was the Bengal tiger which conformed most fully to the image of a tiger in the Western psyche. The Bengal tiger used to be known as the "Royal Bengal tiger", after it was hunted by the Duke of Windsor when he was Prince of Wales. Siegfried and Roy sometimes refer to their white tigers as "royal white tigers", possibly because of the white tiger's association with the Maharaja of Rewa. The French language version of the white tiger Wikipedia is titled "Tigre blanc royal" or "Royal white tiger." The white individuals do not constitute a separate subspecies on their own. They have pink noses, white to cream-coloured fur, and black, grey or chocolate-coloured stripes, grey mottled skin, and ice blue eyes. White tigers are born larger, and grow faster, attaining larger adult sizes than orange tigers. This may have given them an advantage in the wild. White gene carriers, or heterozygotes, are intermediate in size. K.S. Sankhala, who was director of the New Delhi Zoo in the 1960s, said that one of the functions of the white gene may have been to keep a size gene in the population, in case it was ever needed. In the wild white tigers bred white for generations. It is a myth that white tigers did not thrive in the wild and India once planned to reintroduce them.

The condition occurs when inbreeding — usually between parents and cubs — produces offspring with two copies of a recessive gene. This is rare in nature, but with their unusual colouration, white tigers have become popular in zoos and entertainment that showcases exotic animals. For example, the magicians Siegfried and Roy are famous for having used trained white tigers in their performances. However, inbreeding often also leads to birth defects, which makes breeding for white colour somewhat controversial. Although it is actually possible to create white tigers without inbreeding, such cases are exceedingly rare.

Nevertheless, there are several hundred white tigers in captivity worldwide, and their numbers are on the increase. There are estimated to be 300 white tigers alive today. The French language version of the white tiger Wikipedia article puts the number at 600. There are about 75 white tigers in India. The modern population includes both pure Bengals and hybrid Bengal–Siberians, but it is unclear whether the recessive gene for white came from any of the Siberian ancestors, or only from Bengals.

Another genetic condition makes the stripes of the tiger very pale. White tigers with this condition are called snow-white.

White tigers drinking.

Captive White Bengal Tiger Founders

Mohan

Mohan is the founding father of white Bengal tigers. He was captured as a cub in 1951 when maharaja Shri Martand Singh of Rewa and his hunting party in Bandhavgarh found a tigress with four 9-month-old cubs, one of which was white. All except the white cub were shot. The white cub was captured and housed at the unused Govindgarh Palace. The maharaja named it Mohan, roughly translates as "Enchanter", one of the many forms of the god Krishna. The Maharaja shot a white tiger in 1948, and his father kept a male white tiger in captivity from 1915 to 1920. After its death it was mounted and presented to the Emperor King George V, as a token of loyalty. This specimen is now in the British Museum. This same Maharaja, the father of Shri Martand Singh, was once suspended by the British while he was under investigation for murder. There was a white tiger in the menagerie in Exeter Change in London in 1820, which was examined by the famous French anatomist Baron Cuvier, and described in his "Animal Kingdom" as having faint stripes only visible from certain angles of refraction.

In 1952, Mohan was bred to a normal-coloured wild tigress called Begum ("royal consort"), and they produced several litters of orange cubs. Mohan was then bred to his daughter Radha (who carried the white gene inherited from him) and they produced a number of white cubs, including a litter of four in 1958, which included a male named Raja, and three females named Rani, Mohini, and Sukishi. These four were the first white tigers born in captivity. Raja and Rani went to the New Delhi Zoo, and Mohini was bought by the German-American billionaire John W. Kluge for $10,000, for the US National Zoo, as a gift to the children of America, in 1960. Sukeshi remained at Govindgarh Palace, where she was born, in a harem courtyard, as a mate for Mohan. The Indian government made a deal with the Maharaja, under the terms of which Raja and Rani would go to the New Delhi Zoo for free. In exchange the Maharaja's white tiger breeding would be subsidized and he would receive a share of their cubs. The Indian Parliament used to hear reports on the progress of the white tigers, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and U Nu of Burma participated in public christening ceremonies for white cubs at New Delhi Zoo. President Tito of Yugoslavia visited New Delhi Zoo and asked for white tigers for Belgrade Zoo, but was refused. The government of West Bengal bought two white males, named Niladari and Himadri, from the Maharaja for Calcutta Zoo, and an orange female named Malini, from the same litter of three born in 1960, accompanied them there. Calcutta Zoo had a fine specimen of a white tiger in 1920. Five zoos acquired white tigers from the Maharaja of Rewa including the Bristol Zoo in England (a brother and sister pair named Champak and Chameli in 1963) and the Crandon Park Zoo in Miami. Zoos with white tigers constituted a most exclusive club and the white tigers themselves represented a single extended family. The Maharaja was negotiating the sale of a white male as late as 1976, but the animal died. India imposed an export ban on white tigers in 1960, in an effort to preserve a monopoly, probably because Anglo-Indian naturalist E.P. Gee recommended that Govindgarh Palace, and it's white tiger inhabitants, be made a "national trust", which didn't happen. After the export ban was imposed the Maharaja threatened to release all of his white tigers into the Rewa forest, and so he was given dispensation to sell two more pairs abroad, to offset his costs. Mohini was only allowed to leave India because President Eisenhower intervened personally with Prime Minister Nehru, to ask for the release of the United States government's white tiger. A white sister of Mohini's was brought to New Delhi the year before to show the President, who was no stranger to white tigers. Circus owner Clyde Beatty also bought a white tiger from the Maharaja in 1960, for $10,000 in a deal facilitated by Washington Zoo director T.H. Reed, which had to be cancelled because of the export ban. Dr. Reed had travelled to India to escort Mohini to Washington. Years later the Bristol Zoo needed a new breeding male and traded a white female to New Delhi Zoo for a white tiger named Roop. He was the son of Raja by his own mother and half sister- Radha, born in New Delhi. Radha, and many other tigers from Govindgarh including Sukeshi, were later transfered to New Delhi. Begum went to live at Ahmedabad Zoo and was bred to her son Sultan, and had several more litters. Bristol Zoo later transfered two male white tigers to Dudley Zoo. In 1951 the Maharaja placed ads in The New York Times and The Times of London, and wrote to the director of the Manchester Zoo, and probably others, offering to sell his captured white tiger cub. He wanted the princely sum of $28,000 for Mohan. The Maharaja was prevented by law from converting rupees into American dollars, and wanted the money to buy a speed boat.

Mohan died in 1969, aged almost 20. He was the last recorded white tiger born in the wild. The last white tiger reported from the wild was shot in 1958. Pushpraj Singh, the reigning Maharaja of Rewa, is asking students to sign a petition to ask the President of India to return at least two white tigers to Govindgarh Palace, as a tourist attraction.

Mohini

Mohini, a daughter of Mohan, was officially presented to President Eisenhower by John W. Kluge, in a ceremony on the White House lawn, in 1960, and went to live at the Lion House, in the National Zoo, in Rock Creek Park. After arriving in the United States Mohini spent one night in the Bronx Zoo and was then exhibited for three days in Philadelphia before travelling on to Washington. Her name is the feminine of Mohan, and translates as "Enchantress". She was her father's namesake. She was a great attraction, and the zoo wanted to breed more white tigers. At the time, no more white tigers were being allowed out of India, so Mohini was mated to Sampson, her uncle and half brother, who was sent from Ahmedabad Zoo in 1963. (It seems probable that financial considerations may have also precluded Washington from acquiring a second white tiger as a mate for Mohini.) After Sampson's death at age 11 of kidney failure, Mohini was bred to her son Ramana, who was then the only male white gene carrier available. This resulted in the birth of a white daughter named Rewati in 1969 and a white son named Moni in 1970. Moni died of a neurological disorder in 1971. Moni was to have undertaken a fund raising tour for Project Tiger. He was born in a litter of five, which included two white males and three orange females. One was stillborn and the mother crushed the others after three days. Rewati had an orange male littermate which died after two days. Ramana was born in 1964 and had two litter mates-a white male named Rajkumar, who was the first white tiger born in a zoo, and an orange female named Ramani. Both died of feline distemper despite having been vaccinated, at ten months age. Rajkumar had a particularly nasty disposition. The birth of Mohini's first litter was televised in a national special. Mohini's orange daughter Kesari was born in 1966 with an orange female who was stillborn. After Moni died in 1971 the National Zoo tried to acquire an orange tiger named Ram from a zoo in southern India as a mate for Mohini. Ram was a grandson of Mohan and there was a 50% chance that he carried white genes. In 1973 an orange tiger named Poona, from a white mother and an orange father, born at New Delhi Zoo, was sent to Washington from the Brookfield Zoo and bred to Mohini and Kesari. Mohini did not conceive, but Kesari produced six orange cubs, an extraordinary number, especially for a first litter, but only one survived, a female named Marvina. Kesari handed Marvina over to her keepers and kept the other five. She was mistaken for male and named Marvin which was changed to Marvina. Washington Zoo keeper Art Cooper, who hand reared Marvina, observed that white tigers were the most obstinate cats in the zoo, and said that Marvina had a typical white tiger personality. (Poona also fathered litters by two other tigresses in Brookfield and 50% of these cubs would have carried the white gene.) In 1974 Marvina, Ramana, and Kesari were sent to the Cincinnati Zoo, and Rewati and Mohini went to the Brookfield Zoo, to be boarded during renovations in Washington, until 1976. In 1974 while at the Cincinnati Zoo Ramana and Kesari produced a litter of three white and one orange cub, including a white male named Ranjit, two white females named Bharat and Priya, and an orange male named Peela. Devra Kleiman of the National Zoo said that she was well aware of the white gene and specifically told Cincinnati not to breed from any of these tigers-Ramana, Kesari, or Marvina. Cincinnati countered that although Ramana and Kesari had failed to breed in Washington they did so almost as soon as they arrived in Cincinnati. As a fringe benefit of inbreeding the four cubs were pure-Bengal tigers, and they were the last registered Bengal tigers born in the United States. Ranjit, Bharat, Priya, Peela, and Rewati had inbreeding coefficients of 0.406. Ramana died in 1974 and became a father for the last time posthumously. A white half sister of Mohini's bred from Mohan and his white daughter Sukishi, named Gomti and then renamed Princess, lived in the Crandon Park Zoo in Miami for about a year around 1968. She was so inbred that both her mother and grandmother were also her half sisters, and her father, Mohan, was also her grandfather and great grandfather. She was half sister and niece to Mohini. Mohan had fathered three generations of his family. Miami mayor Chuck Hall met the 22 month old 350 lbs. white tigress at the airport and rode with her to the zoo. He wanted to call her Maya, the name suggested by the Maharaja, which translates as Princess. Ralph F. Scott, who payed $35,000 for her and gave her to the Zoological Society of Florida, prefered the name Princess. A male white tiger acquired for the Crandon Park Zoo died at a railway station en route from India in 1967. He was a son of Raja and Rani, making him Princess's triple first cousin, born in New Delhi, and sold by the Maharaja of Rewa. Mohini died in 1979. The skulls and skins of Mohini and her son Rajkumar are in the Smithsonian, but are not on display. An orange brother of Mohini's named Ramar lived in Paris Zoo, and an orange aunt of hers lived in Bristol Zoo.

Tony

Tony, born in 1973 probably in September in Peru, Indiana, was the founder of many American white tiger lines, especially those used in circuses. His grandfather was a registered Siberian tiger, named Kubla, who was born at the Como Zoo in Minnesota. His parents were born in the wild and believed to be brother and sister. He was bred to a Bengal tigress named Susie, from a west coast zoo, at the Sioux Falls Zoo in South Dakota. Two of their cubs (Rajah and Sheba II) were bred together in a brother–sister mating, by Hungarian expatriot and self-styled "Baron" Julius von Uhl, then a trainer with the Shrine Circus, who lived in Peru, Indiana. One of the results was Tony. Tony therefore carried mixed blood and was responsible for introducing Siberian genes into previously pure Bengal lines in North America. He may also be the source of a gene for stripelessness. Tigers of mixed or unknown ancestry are called generics by zoo people.

In 1973 there were four white tigers in the United States: Mohini and her daughter Rewati in Washington DC, Tony, and his first cousin named Bagheera,a female born in 1972 in a litter of two white cubs, including a male which didn't survive, in the Hawthorn Circus of John F. Cuneo Jr. Bagheera's mother, Sheba III, was a sister of Tony's mother, Sheba II. Bagheera's father was either her registered Amur uncle and preferred mate, named Ural, or one of two of her brothers, named Prince and Saber, who were also brothers to Tony's parents, which would make their offspring quadruple first cousins. Sheba III lived to be 26, an astonishing age for a tiger. Most of Sheba III's litters did not include white cubs, but at least 50% of her orange cubs would have been white gene carriers, since they could have inherited the gene from their mother, and if both parents were heterozygotes 66%, or two out of three, of their orange cubs would have been carriers. Prince was castrated before Sheba III concieved another white cub, a male named Frosty, born in 1975. Frosty severely mauled trainer Wade Burck. It seems odd that a tiger which may have been fathering such valuable cubs (Prince) would have been neutered. Saber was never observed trying to mate, so perhaps Ural, also called Genghis, did sire one or more of Sheba III's white cubs, which would have been three quarters Siberian had this been the case. It is possible for tigers from the same litter to have different fathers. It's also possible that any or all three tigers-Ural, Prince, and Saber, carried the white gene.

Tony was purchased by John F. Cuneo Jr., owner of the Hawthorn Circus Corp. of Grayslake, Illinois, in 1975 at 16 months of age, for $20,000, and later bred with orange tigresses, named Rani and Baby, who were his first cousins, in the Hawthorn Circus, resulting in more white offspring. Tony was sent on breeding loan to the Cincinnati Zoo in 1976, to be bred to Rewati from the US National Zoo. However, Tony and Rewati did not breed, so he was bred to Mohini's orange daughter Kesari instead, resulting in a litter of four white and one orange cub, representing a mixture of the two unrelated strains. All of the white cubs from Kesari's 1976 litter by Tony were cross-eyed, as were Rewati and Bagheera. The Cincinnati Zoo retained a brother and sister pair from the litter, named Bhim and Sumita, and their orange sister Kamala. Two white males returned to the Hawthorn Circus with Tony as John Cuneo's share from the breeding loan. John Cuneo also asked the Bristol Zoo to trade some white tigers, to diversify the gene pool, but the Bristol Zoo declined, perhaps not wishing to exchange pure-Bengals for mongrels. Tony, Bagheera, and Frosty lived for years with a troop of Hawthorn Circus tigers stationed at at Marineland and Game Farm, in Niagara Falls, Canada. Bhim and Sumita became the world record parents of white cubs. Over 70 white tigers have been born at the Cincinnati Zoo, which is no longer in the white tiger business. The Cincinnati Zoo sold white tigers for $60,000 each. Prior to 1974 the Cincinnati Zoo wanted to acquire a white tiger, but no zoo would sell at any price. By the 1980s the Cincinnati Zoo was the world's leading purveyor of white tigers. After 1976 only one more white tiger born at the Cincinnati Zoo was cross eyed. Crossed eyes may be reduced or eliminated through selective breeding, as it has been in Siamese cats. Critics refer to white tiger breeding as "proliferation", and the Cincinnati Zoo was derided as a "white tiger mill". The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha bought Tony's parents and orange sister Obie, and bred more white tigers. Some of Tony's white siblings born in Omaha proved to be sterile. Obie was paired with Ranjit from the National Zoo. In 1984 Rewati was paired with Ika, from Kesari's 1976 litter, at the Columbus Zoo. By this time he was a three legged amputee retired from circus performance, put out to pasture to breed. Ika killed Rewati in the act of mating. Ika was then mated with a white tigress named Taj, who was a grand daughter of his brothers Ranjit and Bhim, and fathered white cubs in Columbus. Ika was also bred to Taj's orange mother Dolly, a daughter of Bhim, in Columbus. Isson, a white grand son of Kesari, was also dispatched to Columbus on breeding loan from the Hawthorn Circus, of Grayslake, Illinois, which eventually had 80 white tigers. In 1980 a white cub was born in the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin, from a father-daughter mating. The father killed the white cub and the mother was later bred with an orange brother of Tony. It is not known whether the Racine Zoo tigers were related to any other strains of white tigers.

Orissa White Tigers

Three white tigers were also born in the Nandankanan Zoo in Orissa, India in 1980. Their parents were an orange father–daughter pair called Deepak and Ganga, who were not related to Mohan or any other captive white tiger – one of their wild-caught ancestors would have carried the recessive white gene, and it showed up when Deepak was mated to his daughter or it could have been the result of a spontaneous mutation in Deepak. When the surprise birth of three white cubs occurred there was a white tigress already living at the zoo, named Diana, from New Delhi Zoo. One of the three was later bred to her creating another blend of two unrelated strains of white tigers. This lineage resulted in several white tigers in Nandankanan Zoo. Today the Nandankanan Zoo has the largest collection of white tigers in India. The Cincinnati Zoo acquired two female white tigers from the Nadankanan, in the hopes of establishing a line of pure-Bengal white tigers in America, but they never got a male, and didn't receive authorization from the Association Of Zoos And Aquarium (AZA)'s Species Survival Program (SSP) to breed them. The Columbus Zoo had also hoped to breed pure-Bengal white tigers, but were unable to obtain a white registered Bengal mate for Rewati from India. There were also surprise births of white tigers in the Asian Circus, in India, to parents not known to have been white gene carriers, or heterozygotes, and not known to have any relationship to any other white tiger strains. There were also white cubs born at Calcutta Zoo from orange parents related to the Orissa strain. In 1979 a heterozygote was bred to a wild caught tiger, in an Indian zoo, and produced a white cub, but the cub didn't stay white. There have been instances of tiger and leopard cubs in the United States being born white, and then changing to normal color.

Stripeless (Snow White) Tigers

An additional genetic condition can remove most of the striping of a white tiger, making the animal almost pure white. One such specimen was exhibited at Exeter Change in England in 1820 and described by Georges Cuvier ("A white variety of Tiger is sometimes seen, with the stripes very opaque, and not to be observed except in certain angles of light"), Richard Lydekker ("a white tiger, in which the fur was of a creamy tint, with the usual stripes faintly visible in certain parts, was exhibited at the old menagerie at Exeter Change about the year 1820"), Hamilton Smith ("A wholly white tiger, with the stripe-pattern visible only under reflected light, like the pattern of a white tabby cat, was exhibited in the Exeter Change Menagerie in 1820") and John George Wood ("a creamy white, with the ordinary tigerine stripes so faintly marked that they were only visible in certain lights".) Edwin Landseer also drew this tigress in 1824.

The modern strain of snow white tigers came from repeated brother–sister matings of Bhim and Sumita at Cincinnati zoo. The gene involved possibly came from the Siberian tiger, via their part-Siberian ancestor Tony. Continued inbreeding appears to have caused a recessive gene for stripelessness to show up. About one fourth of Bhim and Sumita's offspring were stripeless. Their striped white offspring, which have been sold to zoos around the world, may also carry the stripeless gene.

Because Tony is present in many white tiger pedigrees, the gene may also be present in other captive white tigers. As a result, stripeless whites have occurred in zoos as far afield as the Czech Republic, Spain and Mexico. Stage magicians Siegfried and Roy were the first to attempt to breed selectively for stripelessness; they own snow white Bengal tigers taken from Cincinnati Zoo (Tsumura, Mantra, Mirage and Akbar-Kabul) and Guadalajara, Mexico (Vishnu and Jahan), and a stripeless Siberian tiger called Apollo.

In 2004, a blue-eyed, stripeless white tiger was born at a wildlife refuge in Alicante, Spain. Its parents are normal orange Bengals. The cub was named Artico ("Arctic"). Stripeless white tigers were thought to be sterile until Siegfried and Roy's stripeless white tigress Sitarra, a daughter of Bhim and Sumita, gave birth. Another variation which came out of the white strains are unusually light orange tigers called golden tabby tigers. These may be orange tigers which carry the stripeless white gene as a recessive. Some white tigers in India have been very dark nearly reverting to orange.

Genetics & Albinism

Contrary to popular belief, white tigers are not albinos; true albino tigers would have no stripes. The stripeless white tigers known today only have very pale stripes. There is, in fact, no evidence of true albinisms in modern tigers.

Part of the confusion is due to the misidentification of the so-called chinchilla gene (for white) as an allele of the albino series (publications prior to the 1980s refer to it as an albino gene). The mutation is recessive to normal color, which means that two orange tigers carrying the mutant gene may produce white offspring, and white tigers bred together will produce only white cubs. The stripe color varies due to the influence and interaction of other genes.

While the inhibitor ("chinchilla") gene affects the color of the hair shaft, there is a separate "wide-band" gene affecting the distance between the dark bands of colour on agouti hairs.Robinson, Roy; et al. (1999). Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0750640695. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |last= (help) An orange tiger who inherits two copies of this wide-band gene becomes a golden tabby; a white who inherits two copies becomes almost or completely stripeless. Inbreeding allows the effect of recessive genes to show up, hence the ground and stripe colour variations among white tigers.

As early as 1907, naturalist Richard Lydeker doubted the existence of albino tigers. However, we do have a report of true albinism: in 1922, two pink-eyed albino young were shot along with their mother at Mica Camp, Tisri, in Cooch Behar District, according to Victor N Narayan in a ”Miscellaneous Note” in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. The albinos were described as sickly-looking sub-adults, with extended necks and pink eyes.

Inbreeding depression

Because of the extreme rarity of the white tiger allele in the wild, the breeding pool was limited to the small number of white tigers in captivity. Inbreeding between these tigers often leads to defects. Due to the high market value for white tigers, unscrupulous breeders will still inbreed white tigers to ensure the offspring also exhibit the recessive gene. Some animal rights activists have called for a halt to the breeding of white tigers altogether.

Outside of India, highly inbred white tigers are prone to crossed eyes (strabismus) due to incorrectly routed visual pathways in the brain (when stressed or confused all white tigers cross their eyes according to tiger trainer Andy Goldfarb), star-gazing and postural problems. A weakened immune system is directly linked to reduced pigmentation. White tigers react strangely to anesthesia due to their inability to synthesize the tyrosinase enzyme, a trait shared with true albinos. Strabismus is associated with white tigers of mixed Bengal/Siberian ancestry. Only one pure Bengal white tiger was reported to be cross-eyed: Mohini's daughter Rewati. Strabismus is directly linked to the white gene and is not a separate result of inbreeding. Siamese cats and albino ferrets exhibit the same visual pathway abnormality found in white tigers, and Siamese cats are also known to be cross eyed in some instances. The visual pathway abnormality was first documented in a white tiger in the brain of Moni after he died, although his eyes were in normal alignment. The examination of Moni's brain suggested that the abnormality may be less pronounced in white tigers than it is in Siamese cats. Because of the visual pathway abnormality, by which some of the optic nerves are routed to the wrong side of the brain, some white cubs have a problem with spatial orientation and bump into things until they learn to compensate. Some compensate by crossing their eyes. White tigers, Siamese cats, and Himalayan rabbits, have enzymes in their fur which react to temperature, making their fur darken in cold. This is why Siamese cats and Himalayan rabbits are darker on their nose, ears, legs, and tail, where the cold penetrates more easely. K.S. Sankhala, who was director of the New Delhi Zoo in the 1960s, observed that white tigers are always whiter in Rewa, even when they are born in New Delhi and returned to there. Rewati also had a crooked spine, shortened limbs, and her reproductive cycle was irregular, making her a poor candidate for breeding. This may be why the National Zoo did not elect to breed her with Poona, while he was on breeding loan to Washington in 1973, but because of the rarity and demand for white tigers she was later bred by Robert Baudy, in Center Hill, Florida, to an unrelated orange Amur tiger, but did not conceive. Rewati also lived at the Bronx Zoo for several years and they may have attempted to breed her. It has been possible to expand the white gene pool by outcrossing white tigers with unrelated orange tigers and then using the cubs to produce more white tigers. Poona was the result of an outcross between a white tiger and an unrelated orange tiger at the New Delhi Zoo. Ranjit, Bharat, Priya, and Bhim were all outcrossed; in some instances to more than one unrelated tiger. Bharat was bred to an unrelated orange tiger named Jack, from San Francisco Zoo, and had an orange daughter named Kanchana. Bharat and priya were also bred with an unrelated orange tiger from Knoxville Zoo, and Ranjit was bred to this tiger's sister, also from Knoxville Zoo. Bhim fathered several litters by an unrelated orange tigress named Kimanthi, at the Cincinnati Zoo. Ranjit had several mates at the Omaha Zoo. The last descendants of Bristol Zoo's white tigers were a group of orange tigers from outcrosses which were shipped to Pakistan. The National Zoo no longer keeps any Bengal tigers and has shifted it's focus to endangered Sumatran tigers. The Cincinnati Zoo has more recently bred endangered Indo-Chinese tigers. The draw backs of outcrossing are the loss of a generation and the production of surplus cubs. Perhaps the mongrelization of white tigers has been a mixed blessing since, although the introduction of Amur genes into the white strain has further delegitemized white tigers for zoo conservation purposes, it's possible that hybrid vigor has counteracted inbreeding depression and created healthier bloodlines.

Mohini was checked for Chediak-Higashi Syndrome, but the results were inconclusive. This is similar to albino mutations, and causes bluish lightening of the fur color, crossed eyes, and prolonged bleeding in the event of surgery or injury, the blood is slow to coagulate, in domesticated cats. Other genetic problems include shortened tendons of the forelegs, clubfoot, central retinal degeneration (reported in a single male white tiger in the Milwaukee County Zoo, may not have been related to inbreeding, but possibly to the reduced pigmentation in the eye) , kidney problems, arched or crooked backbone and twisted neck. Reduced fertility and miscarriages, noted by ”tiger man” Kailash Sankhala, were attributed to inbreeding depression. Some of the white tigers born to North American lines have bulldog faces with a snub nose, jutting jaw, domed head and wide-set eyes with an indentation between the eyes. However, some of these traits have also been linked to poor diet. The white gene is recessive, and therefore must be inherited from both parents, to produce a white tiger. Inbreeding is a conscious strategy to promote homozygosity in white tigers. There's really no such thing as a white gene. White tigers carry orange genes which are "switched off."

Historical records

While the modern population descends from Rewan tigers, white tigers have been recorded as far afield as China and Korea, Nepal, Myanmar, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java. Historically, white tigers have been reported in northern China, in the geographic range of the Siberian tiger, and in the Indo-Chinese, Sumatran and Javan subspecies, but not among South China, Caspian or Bali tigers. Arthur Locke writing in "The Tigers Of Trengganu" (1954) mentions white tigers, but it's unclear whether he means specifically in Trengganu, in the Malay Peninsula, or elsewhere in Asia, in which case there may be no record of white tigers ever existing in the Malay Peninsula. The Malayan tiger (Panther tigris malayensis or jacksoni) was only recognized as a subspecies separate from the Indo-Chinese (Panthera tigris corbetti) in 2004, and the Indo-Chinese as a subspecies separate from the Bengal in 1968. White tigers were reported from Burma, now called Myanmar, but since the Irrawaddy River (Ayeyarwady since 1998) is the theoretical dividing line between the range of the Bengal and Indo-Chinese tiger, it is uncertain whether there were also white Indo-Chinese tigers.

In some regions, the animal forms part of local tradition. In China, it was revered as the god of the West, Baihu. In South Korea, a white tiger will sometimes be represented on the taeguk emblem on the flag – the symbolising evil, opposite the green dragon for good. In Indian superstition, the white tiger was the incarnation of a Hindu deity, and anyone who killed it would die within a year. Sumatran and Javan royalty claimed descent from white tigers, and the animals were regarded as the reincarnations of royalty. In Java the white tiger was associated with the vanished Hindu kingdoms and with ghosts and spirits. It was also the icon guardian of the seventeenth century court.

White tigers with dark stripes were recorded in the wild in India during the Mughal Period (1556–1605). A painting from 1590 of Akbar on hunting near Gwalior depicts four tigers, two of which appear white. As many as 17 instances of white tigers were recorded in India between 1907 and 1933 in several separate locations: Orissa, Bilaspur, Sohagpur and Rewa.

Between 1892 and 1922, white tigers were routinely shot in India in places such as Orissa, Upper Assam, Bilaspur, Cooch Behar and Poona. Pollock (1900) reported white tigers from Burma and the Jynteah hills of Meghalaya. In the 1920s and 30s, fifteen white tigers were killed in Bihar, and more were shot in other regions. On 22 January 1939, the Prime Minister of Nepal shot a white tiger at Barda camp in Terai Nepal. The last observed wild white tiger was shot in 1958, and the mutation is considered extinct in the wild . The slaughter of so many orange tigers may have killed the carriers of the mutant gene.NN

Popular culture

File:Kent.vapenammunition.albumart.jpg

Cover of Vapen & ammunition

• Swedish rock band Kent featured a white tiger on the cover of their best-selling album Vapen & ammunition in 2002. This was a tribute to the band's home town Eskilstuna; the zoo in town had white tigers as its main attraction.
• The Beast Wars character Tigatron transformed into a white tiger.
• White Tiger is the name of several comic-book superheroes.
• Bengali from ThunderCats was an anthropomorphic white tiger.
• In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, after being given the powers of the White Ranger, Tommy Oliver assumed command of the White Tigerzord.
• In Power Rangers Wild Force, Alyssa Enrilé's Wild zord was a white tiger.
• The Japanese Super Sentai series which the Power Rangers series are based off of have used White Tiger themed mecha. Most noteably are the sentai footage of the Mythical Chi Beast Won Tiger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger and GaoTiger of the Power Animals from Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger which the MMPR and Wild Force Footage is based on.
• In Warcraft the Night Elves's mount is a frostsaber which is similar to a white bengal tiger. A hunter can tame a frostsaber or other white tigers in World of Warcraft.
• In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, White Tigers are seen fighting for the White Witch
• In Dexter's Laboratory, White Tiger is one of the Justice Friends.
• In Zoo Tycoon, players are able to adopt White Bengal Tigers.
• In Beyblade, Ray has a white tiger bitbeast named Driger.
• In the famous magic shows of Sigfried & Roy white tigers were used in some of the acts.

• In Ronin Warriors, Ryu's pet/fighting partner named "White Blaze" was a white striped tiger.

References

• Leyhausen, Paul and Reed, Theodore H., "The white tiger: care and breeding of a genetic freak." Smithsonian April 1971
• Park, Edwards "Around The Mall And Beyond." Smithsonian September 1979
• Reed, Elizabeth C., "White Tiger In My House." National Geographic May 1970
• Reed, Theodore H. "Enchantess: Queen Of An Indian Palace Rare White Tigress Comes To Washington." National Geographic May 1961.

• "Genetic abnormality of the visual pathways in a "white" tiger" R.W. Guillery and J.H. Kaas Science June 22, 1973
• "Cross-eyed tigers" Scientific American 229:43 August 1973
• "Now He's The Cat's Meow" Dan Geringer Sports Illustrated Vol. 65 No. 3 July 21, 1986
• "Here Kitty Kitty: Cincinnati Zoo Breeds Five Rare White Tigers" People Weekly 21:97-9 January 23, 1984
• "White Tiger: An Indian Maharaja Is Trying To Sell His Rare Cub To A U.S. Zoo." Life 31:69 October 15, 1951
• "White Tiger From India" Life 49: 47-8 December 19, 1960
• "Grrr! Ownership of a rare white tiger disputed." The Detroit News February 11, 1975 Section A pg. 3;
• Berrier, H.H., Robinson, F.R., Reed, T.H., & Gray, C.W., "The white tiger enigma" Veterinary Medicine/Small Animal Clinician 1975 467-472;
• Iverson, S.J. (1982) "Breeding white tigers". Zoogoer 11:5-12; * Thornton, I.W.B., K.K. Yeung & K.S. Sankhala. 1967. The genetics of white tigers in Rewa. J. Zool. 152: 127-35
• Thornton, I.W.B. 1978. White tiger genetics-further evidence. J. Zool. 185:389-394
• "Tiger!" by K.S. Sankhala

See also

• White lion
• Bengal tiger
• Siberian tiger

External links

• White Tigers (with genealogy charts)
• White tigers
• Indian Tiger Welfare Society
• Big Cat Rescue