White Tiger - India's Legend

Most of you have heard of the existence of the white tiger, but most likely, few wondered what kind of wild cats are and whether there are white tigers in nature or is it the work of human hands? Let's see ...

The existence of the white tiger is known for a very, very long time. In India, it was believed that a meeting with a white tiger could bring enlightenment, and the killing of an unusual beast could carry a string of troubles, including death.

In the wild, white tigers were extremely rare. Why in the past tense? The fact is that over the past 60 years, neither scientists nor hunters have seen the white tiger in the wild. The last time the white tiger was seen was in 1958. Unfortunately, he was not only seen, but also shot.

To this day, science knows only white Bengal tigers living (probably living) in the wild. It is believed that a white tiger cub is born with a probability of 1 to 10,000. This is a congenital mutation, but white tigers are not albinos, as indicated by the fact that their fur has dark stripes. In the wild, probably, the white tigers were perfectly healthy animals, not unlike their usual orange counterparts. But in captivity is a completely different situation ...

In captivity to date, lives from 150 to 200 individuals of the white Bengal tiger and they all came from one person and one tiger, respectively:

It all began in May 1951, when a tiger's den found in a tiger hunt with the participation of Reva's maharaja, in which were four tigers - three red and one white. The red cubs were killed, and the white man was placed in the palace of the Maharaja. Tiger quickly became a favorite and the pride of the ruler. He was given the name Mohan.

Maharaja hoped that this white tiger should sooner or later be born a white tiger cub, but for several years all the kittens were born the most common - red. After 7 years, the tiger was brought down with his daughter. As a result of inbreeding (a link between related individuals), the tigress gave birth to four kittens, one of which was white. A few more years passed and there were already so many white tigers in the palace that some of them decided to sell. In the early 1960s, several white cubs were found outside India, particularly in the United States and Great Britain.

Today, white tigers live in many zoos around the world, as well as a large number in private nurseries. All white tigers are descendants of that tiger who lived in the palace of the Maharaja. For the birth of a white tiger, a white tiger and a tiger, a child of a white tiger, are needed. Also, a white tiger cub can be born to two red tigers, provided that they are both or at least one of them is a child of a white tiger. From all this it follows that all white tigers are the result of incest, which, of course, can not but affect the offspring. White cubs are smaller than their red brothers and sisters. They often have slanting eyes, crooked legs, weak spine.

In this case, according to observations, white cubs grow faster and grow larger than ordinary Bengal tigers.

As we mentioned above, only the representatives of the Bengal subspecies are white, however, white (with black stripes) Amur tigers are often found in zoos. But in the wild nature of the white Amur tigers do not. More precisely, there was not a single documented case of a meeting with a white Amur tiger. As for the white Amur tigers living in captivity, it is not a pure-bred Amur tiger, but a mixture of the Amur and Bengal tiger with a congenital white mutation.

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