Chilean zoo shows off white tiger

Updated: 7:41 p.m. ET May 17, 2007

SANTIAGO, Chile – A rare, one-year-old white tiger named Pampa had a coming-out party Thursday at a Chilean zoo.

Weighing 265 pounds and measuring more than 10 feet from nose to tail, he was introduced to dozens of photographers and children by at Santiago’s Metropolitan Zoo.

The blue-eyed Pampa was born in Argentina and will be mated with Luna, a two-year-old female from a Mexican zoo. Officials expect cubs as soon as December.

White tigers are not a separate subspecies, but the result of both parents having a recessive gene for white coloration. They are rare in the wild because standing out in the jungle doesn’t help catch prey.

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