WHITE TIGER TRUTH
There are alligators in the New York sewer system, black cats are bad luck, tiger bone wine increases virility, and white tigers are a “species” that should be bred in captivity to “preserve” them. It is not easy, and takes a long time, to dispel widely held public misperceptions.
Further, there is always a tendency to place value on anything that is rare. That rarity can be equated with beauty. Often we hear people talk about how beautiful white tigers are. All tigers are beautiful. But, when you think about it, are white tigers more beautiful than the wonderfully colored orange tigers?
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thout getting into detailed genetics, white tigers are the result of a recessive gene. If two golden tigers that have that gene mate, sometimes a white cub will be born. If one or both of the mating tigers are white, the odds improve. People often confuse Siberian, or Amur, tigers with white tigers because we think of snow when we think of Siberia. Originally all white tigers were Bengal tigers in India. But, there is a connection to the Siberian tiger. Cross breeding Bengal tigers with Siberian tigers is believed to increase the odds of producing white cubs. The result of that cross breeding is “generic” tigers, i.e. tigers who are not of pure subspecies and therefore have no conservation value. All of the tigers in roadside zoos are generic tigers, including all white tigers, largely as a result of the effort to breed white tigers.
Over the centuries in India there were reports of white tigers. There is no evidence we have seen that these were very common. The last one reported seen in the wild was killed in 1958. The fact that none have been seen since suggests that they either have trouble surviving, perhaps because of the lack of camouflage, or that they are born very, very infrequently, or both.
The captive population began with the capture of one white cub, Mohan, whose mother and siblings were killed in order to capture him, in 1951. Mohan was bred to an orange tiger and all of the offspring were orange. Mohan was then bred to one of his own orange daughters. That produced white cubs, one of whom was brought to the United States and became the foundation of the breeding here. So the origin of the white tigers here was already a function of inbreeding Mohan to his own daughter.
The breeding began in volume at one large zoo, then with Seigfried & Roy beginning in the early 1980s. Their rarity created value, reportedly tens of thousands of dollars each back then. That, and their popularity, incentivized roadside zoos and private breeders to try to create white tigers.
Many white tigers are born with defects. One of the most common defects particularly seen in white tigers is being cross-eyed. Our Sapphire is cross eyed, as are some of the other tigers pictured here. One of the roadside zoo owners who promotes breeding of white tigers published a photo of himself riding around in his luxury car with cross eyed cub. Our Zabu was missing her upper lip. The most deformed white tiger we know of was Kenny, who came to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas from a private breeder at 20 months old in 2000. No one knows if others are born with such severe defects because there is no tracking of cubs born at roadside zoos to know if they are destroyed at birth if they are born with such defects.
In 2011 the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA), the accrediting body for the major zoos, issued a White Paper documenting the reasons that breeding to foster a recessive gene like this was contrary to the principles of conservation and should not be done by their zoos. One roadside zoo advocate of white tiger breeding, himself a very clever marketer, argues online that AZA only did this to “protect AZA market share” from non-AZA zoos. Given that the public is drawn to white tigers based on misconceptions, this argument is ridiculous.
The roadside zoos that make an enormous amount of money charging the public to view, pet, or swim with white tiger cubs like to point to a thesis submitted by an undergraduate college student at Texas A&M University published in 2013. The study seems to conclude that white tigers are not significantly more inbred than golden tigers. But the handful of genetic samples used in the study (14 to 20) came primarily from a few sanctuaries (including Big Cat Rescue), some roadside zoos, a circus, and a private breeder. Given that many of the orange tigers would have been the result of inbreeding to create white tigers, is it any surprise that these orange tigers tested as inbred as the white ones?
Often on our tours when visitors spot one of our white tigers (formerly Zabu, now Sapphire) there is oohing and ahing with excitement that stems from the common misconception, attributed largely to master marketers Siegfried and Roy, that these rare tigers need to be bred and “preserved.” We use that opportunity to educate visitors about the history of inbreeding and point to Sapphire’s severely crossed eyes as an example.
If enough people learn not to patronize places that breed white tigers, there will no incentive to keep up the inbreeding used to create them. Thanks for anything you can do to help us spread the word.
All White Tigers Are Inbred and Are Not Purebred
The ONLY way to produce a tiger or lion with a white coat is through inbreeding brother to sister or father to daughter; generation after generation after generation. The kind of severe inbreeding that is required to produce the mutation of a white coat also causes a number of other defects in these big cats.
In June 2011 the board of directors for the American Zoological Association (AZA) formalized their 2008 ban on the breeding of white tigers, white lions or king cheetahs by their member zoos. Their report said, “Breeding practices that increase the physical expression of single rare alleles (i.e., rare genetic traits) through intentional inbreeding, for example intentional breeding to achieve rare color-morphs such as white tigers, deer, and alligators, has been clearly linked with various abnormal, debilitating, and, at times, lethal, external and internal conditions and characteristics, which are outlined in this paper.” This change in policy came more than 12 years after Big Cat Rescue first released Dr. Laughlin’s expose below.
The same gene that causes the white coat causes the optic nerve to be wired to the wrong side of the brain, thus all white tigers are cross eyed, even if their eyes look normal. They also often suffer from club feet, cleft palates, spinal deformities and defective organs.
The white coat is a double recessive gene so most of the cubs born through this inbreeding have normal coloring but they too suffer the same defects and are referred to in the trade as “throw away tigers.” As such, they are often killed at birth because only the white tigers are the big money makers. And because none of these cats are purebred (they are all crosses between Bengal tigers and Siberian tigers), they serve no conservation purpose.
The American Zoological Association (AZA) recognizes that these cats should not be bred and admonishes AZA accredited zoos not to breed any more of them. The leader of the tiger Species Survival Plan states openly that the only reason people breed white tigers is because people will pay to see white tigers.
You can end the misery by just Saying NO to any place that breeds or exploits white tigers.
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Teachers & Educators
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The White Tiger Fraud
Did you know the only way to produce a white tiger is through severe inbreeding of brother to sister, father to daughter and mother to son?
Did you know that there is no such species as a Royal White Bengal Tiger?
If you didn’t know that, don’t feel bad, you were deceived just like millions of others. Read on to learn the truth about white tigers, white lions, tabby tigers and other genetic aberrations. Print the White Tiger Fact Sheet Brochure
Over the years many people have asked us to take white tigers off their hands, but in every case it was only so they could breed more babies to use, so we declined. For years we have railed against supporting facilities that breed and exhibit white tigers because of the abuse involved in producing them. White Tigers can ONLY exist in captivity by continual inbreeding, such as father to daughter, brother to sister, mother to son and so forth. The white lions and golden tabby tigers are merely a product of this practice of inbreeding for white coats as well and are not being bred for any sort of conservation program either. ALL white tigers are cross eyed, whether it shows or not, because the gene that causes the white coat always causes the optic nerve to be wired to the wrong side of the brain. That is why white tigers are such a favorite of the tiger-tamer-wanabees; they are far more dependent upon their masters. (See genetics and time line of the inbreeding below)
The myth of the Rare White Bengal Tiger was an illusion meant to deceive the public into thinking that these cats were endangered and being preserved for future generations. The truth of the matter is that they aren’t even pure Bengal tigers, but rather are all the offspring of an original Siberian / Bengal cross breeding. The inbreeding results in many defects, early deaths, still births and, as could be expected, the cats are not very bright which is why they are preferred for entertainment purposes.
To quote from Dr. Ron Tilson, Conservation Director of the Minnesota Zoo and manager of the world renown Tiger Species Survival Plan, “The white tiger controversy among zoos is a small part ethics and a large part economics. The tiger Species Survival Plan has condemned breeding white tigers because of their mixed ancestry, most have been hybridized with other subspecies and are of unknown lineage, and because they serve no conservation purpose. Owners of white tigers say they are popular exhibit animals and increase zoo attendance and revenues as well. The same rationalization can be applied to the selective propagation of white lions, king cheetahs and other phenotypically aberrant animals.”
| “White tigers are an aberration artificially bred and proliferated by some zoos, private breeders and a few circuses who do so for economic rather than conservation reasons.” |
“However, there is an unspoken issue that shames the very integrity of zoos, their alleged conservation programs and their message to the visiting public. To produce white tigers or any other phenotypic curiosity, directors of zoos and other facilities must continuously inbreed father to daughter and father to granddaughter and so on. At issue is a contradiction of fundamental genetic principles upon which all Species Survival Plans for endangered species in captivity are based. White tigers are an aberration artificially bred and proliferated by some zoos, private breeders and a few circuses who do so for economic rather than conservation reasons.”
As for breeding tigers of any color, Ron Tilson says, “For private owners to say, ‘We’re saving tigers,’ is a lie,” Tilson says. “They are not saving tigers; they’re breeding them for profit.”
Tilson says the exotic animal market is a multimillion dollar industry, ranking just below the illegal drug trade and just above the illegal gun market.
Tilson says tigers are the most charismatic animal on earth. Their appeal is universal. “They are the alpha predator who used to kill and eat us,” he says. “We cannot help but be in awe of their power and grace. Tigers represent everything fine and decent and powerful. Everything those people would like to be. It’s all an ego trip—big guns, big trucks, and big tigers.”
| …most have such profound birth defects, such as immune deficiency, scoliosis of the spine (distorted spine), cleft palates, mental impairments and grotesquely crossed eyes that bulge from their skull… |
Consider this: Only 1 in 4 tiger cubs from a white tiger bred to an orange tiger carrying the white gene are born white, and 80% of those die from birth defects associated with the inbreeding necessary to cause a white coat.
Of those surviving, most have such profound birth defects, such as immune deficiency, scoliosis of the spine (distorted spine), cleft palates, mental impairments and grotesquely crossed eyes that bulge from their skull that only a small percentage are suitable for display. 
Due to these birth defects, white tigers often die an early death. According to some tiger trainers, only 1 in 30 of those white cats will consistently perform. The number of tigers that have to be produced and disposed of in order to fill the public’s desire to see white tigers on display is staggering.
Big Cat Rescue has never taken in a white tiger before because we did not want to enable people to dispose of their “defective” cats and cause so much more suffering and abuse by having an easy dumping ground for the cats who didn’t serve them.
Even though Zabu is black and white, the decision of whether or not to rescue her was not. When Zabu and Cameron’s plight came to our attention we had to think long and hard about whether or not we would have a white tiger on our tour. We didn’t want to be perceived as using a white tiger to draw visitors.
Many times on our tours we tell guests about the fraud that has been promoted to the public about white tigers and talk about all of our golden tigers who ended up unwanted and abandoned at our door because they were the wrong color. Now we were considering turning away a white tiger because she was the wrong color. In her case the facility was being shut down and by rescuing her we were not enabling the owner to breed more and we were keeping a cat of prime breeding age from falling into the hands of people who would breed her to death.
Every year we have to turn away hundreds of big cats. Please do not support those who breed these majestic animals for a life of cruel confinement. No animal, especially a tiger, belongs in a cage. Carole Baskin, Founder Big Cat Rescue
Zoo Vet on the White Tiger Fraud
by Dan Laughlin, DVM, Ph.D.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer a very relevant fact regarding all the white tigers that are currently in the U.S. About twenty-five years ago I fully researched and documented the accurate genealogy and origin of the white tiger in the U.S. That research revealed that there were and are two separate origins of white tigers. The one that has received all the attention is the Indian or Bengal tiger bloodline which originated in India and entered the U.S. via a breeding loan to the National Zoo. One of the Indian origin tigers carrying the recessive gene for the white color was the mother of the second litter of white tigers born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1976.
The original litter of white tigers born at Cincinnati in 1974 and all subsequent Indian origin bloodline white tigers soon died out in the U.S. without leaving any pure Indian origin Bengal white tigers in the U.S.
What is not known, because I have never published my research definitively showing the true origin of the white tiger in the U.S., is that there is a second and separate origin of the white tiger which occurred spontaneously in two separate private collections in this country when both owners inbred brothers to sisters that were all offspring of two litters resulting from crossing a pure Siberian male and a Bengal female at a small zoo in South Dakota.
Of the twelve live cubs born to the Siberian male and Bengal female at that small zoo, one of the private individuals purchased a litter of two cubs, a brother and sister, and the other individual purchased another litter of five cubs, brothers and sisters, through an animal dealer. Both individuals inbred their brothers and sisters and spontaneously had white tiger cubs born. One white male crossbred tiger, half-Siberian and half-Bengal, was placed on loan to the Cincinnati Zoo where he was crossed with a white carrier female Bengal tiger on loan from the National Zoo. That hybrid crossing in 1976 of the two separate white tiger origin bloodlines produced a litter of four white tiger cubs and one normal colored white carrier cub.
| “the Zoo proceeded to repeatedly inbreed… the white male to his white female sister… Thus, every white tiger ever born at the Cincinnati Zoo is part Siberian tiger and part Bengal tiger… It is those offspring which have been disseminated throughout the U.S.” |
The Cincinnati Zoo then returned both parents and three of the cubs to the two exhibitors that had placed their adults there on loan and then the Zoo proceeded to repeatedly inbreed back and forth the white male to his white female sister that the Zoo had retained ownership of for themselves. Thus, every white tiger ever born at the Cincinnati Zoo was and is part Siberian tiger and part Bengal tiger to a greater or lesser degree.
It is those offspring which have been disseminated throughout the U.S. One of the individuals who owned the litter of five brothers and sisters representing the American crossbred white tiger bloodline has continued to inbreed his tigers for over the past twenty-five years even though his neonate mortality rate has often exceeded eighty per cent and his tigers are severely defective and unfit.
By pure chance and against overwhelming odds, when the two separate bloodlines, the Indian and American, were crossed for the first and only time at the Cincinnati Zoo, the offspring were fairly thrifty and of normal birth weight.
Interestingly, anyone with even cursory experience with and knowledge of the five remaining and endangered subspecies of tigers should be able to simply look at the white tigers throughout the U.S. and clearly see the phenotypic Siberian characteristics present in the cats. Some weigh up to seven hundred pounds and most clearly resemble and exhibit Siberian tiger physical characteristics.
The only conceivable legitimate reason for exhibiting a white tiger would be for educational purposes to clearly and unequivocally illustrate to the public the process of natural selection and how, when a deleterious recessive genetic mutation randomly occurs that is disadvantageous for the survival of the animal, such as white color in a tropical jungle environment, the animal does not survive to pass on that genetic mutation or disadvantageous characteristic to its offspring.
This was the normal course of natural selection and evolution of the tiger until a young white tiger male was captured in 1951, raised and then inbred to one of his daughters by a Maharajah in India who had captured him. Then, in the early 1970’s, the recessive genetic mutation for the white color was present in both the male Siberian tiger and the female Bengal tiger that was exhibited and bred at the small zoo in South Dakota resulting in the origin of the American white tiger bloodline.
To quote from Dr. Ron Tilson, Conservation Director of the Minnesota Zoo, “The white tiger controversy among zoos is a small part ethics and a large part economics. The tiger Species Survival Plan has condemned breeding white tigers because of their mixed ancestry, most have been hybridized with other subspecies and are of unknown lineage, and because they serve no conservation purpose. Owners of white tigers say they are popular exhibit animals and increase zoo attendance and revenues as well. The same rationalization can be applied to the selective propagation of white lions, king cheetahs, and other phenotypically aberrant animals.”
“However, there is an unspoken issue that shames the very integrity of zoos, their alleged conservation programs and their message to the visiting public. To produce white tigers or any other phenotypic curiosity, directors of zoos and other facilities must continuously inbreed father to daughter and father to granddaughter and so on. At issue is a contradiction of fundamental genetic principles upon which all Species Survival Plans for endangered species in captivity are based. White tigers are an aberration artificially bred and proliferated by some zoos, private breeders and a few circuses who do so for economic rather than conservation reasons.”
| “…every white tiger in the U.S. is not only the result of repeated inbreeding of genetically defective animals but, even worse, is a hybrid or crossbred animal.” |
Dr. Tilson made these comments before I informed him that all the white tigers in the U.S. are crossbred or hybrid animals, part Siberian and part Bengal.
So, in conclusion, every white tiger in the U.S. is not only the result of repeated inbreeding of genetically defective animals but, even worse, is a hybrid or crossbred animal. Thus, anyone involved in breeding and/or exhibiting white tigers is doing a great disservice to honest conservation and preservation efforts to save the five remaining and endangered subspecies of tigers barely clinging to survival in their rapidly diminishing natural habitats.
| “anyone involved in breeding and/or exhibiting white tigers is doing a great disservice to … conservation … efforts to save the 5 … species of tigers…” |
The genealogical misrepresentation, repeated inbreeding, exhibition and sale, for $60,000 each, of white tigers by the Cincinnati Zoo initiated the greatest conservation deception of the American public in history. That deception continues through today. In my view, exhibiting and breeding white tigers is the very antithesis of conservation, is dishonest and unethical and is tantamount to catering to the public’s desire to see genetic aberrations rather than educating the public regarding the incredible process of natural selection, how the unbelievable diversity of life has evolved on our planet throughout the past 50 million years and the crucial need for us to preserve natural habitats and stop the destruction of our global ecosystem if we desire to save any threatened or endangered species from extinction.
 |
| This white tiger is not living on Easy Street! His 4 photos are to illustrate the facial deformities that typically accompany the white gene. You never see these “throw-away” cats on display in zoos. Click here to download a 2-page flier to share with others about why there is no pride in breeding for defects HERE |
I hope this information helps inform visitors to your website.
Sincerely,
Daniel C. Laughlin, DVM, PhD
Note: Dr. Laughlin is widely recognized internationally for his expertise in the care and management of zoological animals, especially zoological cats and elephants. He has an international consulting practice limited to zoological animals and when he completed his research into the accurate genealogy of the white tiger he had well over 250 tigers in his practice alone.
He also completed a landmark four-year study in the 1970’s determining the efficacy, dosage, and safety of a modified-live trivalent FVRC-P vaccine for use on zoological cats. That study included 224 zoological cats representing 19 different species and the results of that vaccination study have saved the lives of thousands of captive zoological cats.
Dr. Laughlin has graciously agreed to be a Consultant for the care and management of our extensive collection of zoological cats at “Big Cat Rescue.”
Genetics of the White Tiger
White Tigers can ONLY exist in captivity by continual inbreeding, such as father to daughter, brother to sister, mother to son and so forth. This is because the white color is the result of a double recessive allele (gene) and thus the white color can only be produced by inbreeding one tiger carrying the recessive gene for the white color to another tiger carrying the same recessive gene. Before the five remaining species of tigers were pushed to the brink of extinction by the activities of humans, the random occurrence of one normal colored tiger carrying the 
recessive gene for the white color breeding to another normal colored tiger also carrying the recessive gene for white color, thus producing one or possibly two cubs possessing the double allele for the white color and consequently being born white, occurred about once in every 10,000 births. That statistical approximation is based upon recorded observations in the wild of white cubs. It should be noted that the first recorded observation of a white cub was made in the mid-fifteenth century and the only wild observations of white cubs have been in Bengal tigers.
Because the white coloration is so disadvantageous to survival there is no recorded evidence of a white cub ever living long enough in the wild to become an adult. That is why white tigers ONLY exist in captivity and then ONLY as the result of continual, destructive and unethical inbreeding. Thus, the concept of the “Royal Rare White Bengal Tiger” is a myth and likely the most deceptive misconception and most destructive conservation fraud ever perpetrated on the American public. The truth is that all the white tigers currently in the United States are not even Bengal tigers but are worthless hybrids or crossbreds originating from normal colored offspring born to a pure Siberian male tiger and a pure Bengal female tiger that were kept together during the 1960’s at the Sioux Falls, S.D. Zoo. Unknown to the Zoo at that time or to the two private exhibitors who purchased cubs from two litters born at the Zoo, all the normal colored cubs carried the recessive gene for the white color because either or both their Siberian father or their Bengal mother was a or were random carriers of the recessive mutant gene. Thus when the two private exhibitors that purchased litter mates from the Sioux Falls Zoo unethically bred brother to sister, the recessive mutant genes were paired, producing one or two white tigers.
| “…private exhibitors have experienced neonatal mortality rates in excess of 80% because the recessive gene for the white color is a deleterious mutation…” |
Both private exhibitors have experienced neonatal mortality rates in excess of 80% because the recessive gene for the white color is a deleterious mutation and thus is co-linked to numerous other deleterious and often fatal characteristics such as immune deficiency, strabismus (crossed eyes), scoliosis of the spine (distorted spine), cleft palates, mental impairments and early death.
The genetics of all recessive genes works like this:
If we assign, say a capital “N” to represent normal color in a tiger and a small “w” to represent white color (because the white color is recessive and the orange color is dominant), then a normal colored orange tiger would be represented as “NN” and a normal colored orange tiger carrying the recessive gene for the white color would be represented as “Nw.” So, if we bred a normal colored orange tiger to a normal colored orange tiger carrying the recessive gene for the white color, we would represent that cross as “NN” x “Nw” and the offspring would be represented as half “NN” and half “Nw”. In other words, one-half of the cubs would be normal orange color non-carriers and one-half would be normal color orange carriers of the recessive white gene.
Then, if the two normal color orange carriers of the white gene were bred to each other (brother to sister) the genetic representation would be: “Nw” x “Nw” and the offspring would be something like this: one-fourth “NN”, one-half “Nw” and one-fourth “ww”.
In other words, one out of four cubs, statistically, would be a normal orange colored non-carrier cub (“NN”), one-half of the cubs would be normal orange colored carriers of the recessive white gene (2 “Nw”) and one cub would be a double allele carrier of the white recessive gene (“ww”) and thus be colored white.
But, when you cross a white male to a white female (“ww” x “ww”) you can only have all white cubs born (“ww”) and that is what The Cincinnati Zoo and individuals such as Siegfried and Roy have been doing for at least the past fifteen generations, always breeding for large size, thus unknowingly emphasizing the Siberian phenotypic or physical characteristics deriving from “Kubla,” the pure Siberian male at the Sioux Falls, S.D. Zoo.
Inbreeding Time Line
Chronology of the white Bengal tiger up until the death of Mohan:
1820: A white tiger was displayed at Exeter Change.
1915: White tiger cub captured by Maharajah Gulab Singh of Rewa. Upon its death, it was gifted to King George V as a sign of India’s loyalty to the crown.
25th May 1951: A forest laborer reported sighting a white tiger cub.
26th May 1951: The cub’s mother and two of its three siblings were shot and killed.
27th May 1951: Maharaja Martand Singh captured Mohan.
30th May 1951: The cub escapes and a large party goes out to recapture it.
26th February 1952: A normal colored tigress named Begum is captured.
10th April 1955: Begum produced a litter of a male and two female cubs. All were orange, as were all the cubs in her subsequent two litters.
December 1957: Mohan was mated with Radha, his four-year-old daughter from the second litter with Begum.
20th October 1958: Radha produced an all-white litter of a male and three female cubs. They were christened Raja, Rani, Sukeshi, and Mohini. Subsequently:
The male and one female (Raja and Rani) were gifted to the National Zoological Gardens in New Delhi.
Mohini was transported to Washington D.C.
Sukeshi was kept for mating with Mohan and remained with him until he was withdrawn from breeding. She was then housed with her son in hopes they would breed but he showed no interest in mating with her and after six years without success, she too was transferred to the National Zoological Gardens in New Delhi where she died on the 2nd February 1975.
May 1964: Raja and Rani were mated. Rani gave birth to two white cubs, a male and a female. She mauled both and the female died. The male, ‘Tippu’ lost his tail and was hand-raised with great difficulty.
August 1965: Two white cubs born to Rani. Both died due to neglect.
19th December 1965: Three white cubs are born to Rani. They were left in her care for just over a month, at which point she lost interest and they were hand-raised. The female dies at the age of 17-months and one male dies on the 17th April 1967 during shipping to the United States.
Breeding of Rani continued and she produced a total of 20 white cubs.
19th December 1969: Mohan died aged 19 years 7 months. All captive white tigers descend from Mohan, which explains why they are so genetically inbred.
Please! Never pay to see or touch a white tiger. You can protect tigers from such abuse by sharing and liking this page.
there needs to be an artcal like this for python color morphs
i wish i could help iv always wanted to save the tigers
This is one of the best content that I have found in recent past about white tigers. This is my first visit to this blog but I am very sure that I will be coming to this blog regularly the future because I love white tigers and always looking to find useful information about this lovely animal.
The white tiger is a created by inbreeding and not something I support. Those born with defects are never on display. Hmmmm….
I love Siberians and have seen many – All with Bengals, so maybe they were White Tigers?
so sad 🙁 I wish I could help not only the pretty ones but also the deformed ones.
I think it would be a very, very bad idea to breed tigers into producing white tigers.
It definitely is. Go to BigcatRescue. org and do a search on that site for "white tigers" and read up on the real truth about white tigers.
its amazing
The tigers were first inbred because people were fascinated by white tigers so there's no other way to reproduce this facination unless it's mate also had the mutation. It's just like dogs. A golden retriever was created by being inbred to create the purebred genes. The health issues that were said to be caused by the mutation is incorrect. The mutation could only occur in a single AT or GC pair which controls the coloring. The health problems are the outcome of being inbred. If you were to reproduce with your sibling the child would also have problems. These people want to make you think this is only happening to them when in reality if you thing of purebred dogs, the same thing went on.
Are you saying that all purebred dogs were inbred at one point? I am struggling to understand.
You must breed dogs so call me dumb but what does AT and GC mean. I do think they did mention breading siblings. My self I have a lot of confidence in Big cat rescue. They have done so much for all the cats they have there. I have been there many times. Its a great place.
this is beyond-belief horrible. Care2 just launched a petition against these breeding practices also. I am sharing with as many people as I can. 🙁
I'm honestly not sure what to think of this. It's sad that they're breeding these tigers in the name of conservation. However, strip away the conservation tag and the practice is no worse than purebreeding dogs, which I don't think anyone except the most extreme animal liberation activists have a problem with.
I’m slightly confused about white lions. Here it says white lions are inbred for their colour just like the tigers. But this organization is trying to conserve them and get them classified as a sub-species… http://www.whitelions.org/
No legitimate, science based organization would promote white lions. Period. They are all inbred.
They only want them classified that way so they can keep breeding them. There are no legit white lions as a wild species. They’d lack the ability to hide from prey to hunt successfully. They’d likely not even be able to breed, if they occurred in wild populations. Totally man made species.
This shouldn't be aloud to happen…. If we where to kill an animal its animal cruilty and all this is..is excepted cruelty but law..
Then why are there white lions in the wild if it's inbreeding shouldn't there only be white lions in captivity.
Robbie inbreeding happens in the wild where ever small pockets of big cats end up being separated from others of their kind. The FL Panther is a perfect example of a lot of the problems that occur (crossed eyes, kinked tails, still borns) when a small pocket of cats become too inbred. That is how white tigers have occurred in the 1950s, but it's just too hard for any who are born in the wild to survive because other predators can easily spot them and they could never sneak up on prey. Lions, living in prides, enable some of these very inbred animals to live to adulthood, but you won't see white lions born into healthy genetically diverse prides.
The white tiger is a created by inbreeding and not something I support. Those born with defects are never on display. Hmmmm….
wat
I love Siberians and have seen many – All with Bengals, so maybe they were White Tigers?
so sad 🙁 I wish I could help not only the pretty ones but also the deformed ones.
-facepalm- I have read this article many times before an I would like to point out that there are still white tigers in the wild, they are few and far between, yes, but they are out there and they do live healthy lives just like there are black barn owls or all white zebras. Their life is harder and usually not as long but they are still out there. Not all white tigers come directly from “one tiger caught in the fifties” it is actually a naturally forming gene in ALL tigers. You can breed two normal tigers and still end up with a white tiger although the chances are about 1-1,000 cubs. I am also familiar with tabby tigers/gold tigers (which you also listed) They are NOT in fact a product of inbreeding but a slight variation of SELECTIVE breeding within tiger populations. It is an unwanted side effect yes, but still natural. There is a HUGE difference between INBREEDING and SELECTIVE breeding.
Allow me to explain; when you have a very aggressive animal such as a tiger, you take the ones which are easiest to handle and only breed them. This is a form of domestication and while I do not agree with this (as it prevents ever releasing the offspring into the wild) it does still happen. Like anything bred for one thing (such as dogs and even cats) you end up with unwanted side effects. For instance, there has been a breeding program set up to domesticate foxes in Germany I think. Anyways, they bred these foxes for nice, sweet behavior right off the bat, no extra handling required. They ended up with floppy eared, curly tailed, dog-like foxes that resemble any other small dog breed.
I would also like to point out that MOST white tigers do NOT have crossed eyes people, come on, go look at one for yourselves, jeez. Also, siberian and bangal tigers, when bred together, will not make white tigers, ever. It takes a pure bred bangal to produce a white tiger, the siberian gene would trump any white genes carried by a bangal. Also, just because this is a.org site does not make it true, there is a.org site that claims Martin Luther King jr. was a white woman hating rapist. That site was set up by the white supremacy but because it did not take profit other than donations, it was granted.org labeling.
Please people, go ask your local zoo’s to show you the SHELVES of books they are REQUIRED to keep with PHOTO DOCUMENTATION and GENETIC PROOFING they have to do in order to legally breed these animals. The AZA never banned the breeding of white tigers but the INBREEDING of them. This was to allow government the LEGAL GROUNDS TO TAKE PRIVATELY OWNED TIGERS on the grounds of suspected inbreeding. This was to make sure the government had even more legal rights to get these animals off the black market-type trades. It was also set this way to bar half-par “zoos” that were actually just collectors keeping these animals with only going through basic legal certification.
White (although it is a mostly recessive gene, yes) is still not always trumped by the orange gene. JUST LIKE BLONDE PEOPLE you can still get a blonde haired, blue eyed person with one parent carrying that gene set while the other carries brown hair, brown eyes. You ever seen a baby with blonde hair and blue eyes and both parents with brown hair, brown eyes? That’s because, although it is VERY UNCOMMON, if both parents carry the genes for blond hair and blue eyes, their offspring can come out this way. Same thing with WHITE FURRED and BLUE EYED tigers; you can breed two orangies together and sometimes STILL have a white fur, blue eyed cub. Duh people, go to school.
King cheetahs actually occur at a 1-80 rate in wild cheetahs. It is believed that the animals started out as a domesticated strain of cheetah that worked with local tribes. There is extensive genetic variations within these cheetahs such as increased handling abilities and slight body size differences which points at early domestication. Weather this practice is still in use in some tribes is unknown however nearly all cheetahs carry the genetic makeup for a king cheetah. This particular variation actually makes them slightly larger and more successful in the wild. Unfortunately it also makes them a target for poachers. Weather this is a natural step in evolution or domestication by early tribes, it is still unclear though.
White lions are indeed bred selectively but any zoo under international regulations NEVER allows inbreeding to occur at least within five generations so yes, a second cousin twice removed might be bred together but even THAT is frowned upon. White lions do occur in the wild, quite often actually. They are not as frowned upon within their species as whites are within other species though as they are top of the food chain and white is not that far off from color as their lighter tan colored members.
I have made it a life goal to keep myself educated on these things and I am slightly offended on behalf on the internationalized breeding regulators and required breeding regulations for all zoos. This particular tiger was privately owned (illegally, privately owned) and bred incorrectly. This was NOT a result of any breeding program under educated, regulated programs. This is a tragic example of illegal trade falling through the hands of the government’s eye, not a result of zoo-based breeding programs.
I can point you to many zoos I have been to first hand and have them show you the extensive documentation, dedicated staff workers and wonderful people who work with these animals every day. Most zoos are in fact 80% RESCUE from nutty private hoarders and about only 20% captive bred animals. I would also like to point out that this site says it does not take in white tigers due to the “enabling of continued breeding” Read between the lines people, if it is now “illegal to breed white tigers at all” then why don’t the people running this site just report these facilities and get them shut down?
A: First off, it is NOT illegal to simply breed these animals.
B: This is some kind political stunt.
C: Having a perfectly healthy, non-inbred white tiger in their facility would prove them wrong on all the things they are pointing out here.
I have owned and bred many reptiles and fishes and although a few people I have seen will partake in cheating by inbreeding, this is not common even around small animal breeding. It is also highly frowned upon. I have many friends and even some family that also breed snakes, lizards, rabbits and many other things and inbreeding causes to many problems to even try for any one who understands the trades and has been working with animals long enough. There are cases of inbreeding, yes, but the animal quality is usually low or completely sterile. Most people I know network with other breeders to get unrelated animals that carry or even exhibit the desired traits without any side effects to keep up breeding of certain color patterns. Any one of these people would be happy to pull out pedigrees, books, research papers, family tree lines and files and show them to you if you asked to prove lack of inbreeding.
The same goes for the zoo breeders who HAVE to follow the rules. Not only will other zoos not trade or sell to zoos without proper bloodline proofing, but they will often report them under fraudulence and abuse charges. Please people, educate yourselves and learn who to be mad at. Be mad at the people who really are inbreeding these animals, not the zoos who more often than not, are left to rescue these creatures from cruel, private breeders.
I think it would be a very, very bad idea to breed tigers into producing white tigers.
It definitely is. Go to BigcatRescue. org and do a search on that site for “white tigers” and read up on the real truth about white tigers.
its amazing
The tigers were first inbred because people were fascinated by white tigers so there’s no other way to reproduce this facination unless it’s mate also had the mutation. It’s just like dogs. A golden retriever was created by being inbred to create the purebred genes. The health issues that were said to be caused by the mutation is incorrect. The mutation could only occur in a single AT or GC pair which controls the coloring. The health problems are the outcome of being inbred. If you were to reproduce with your sibling the child would also have problems. These people want to make you think this is only happening to them when in reality if you thing of purebred dogs, the same thing went on.
Are you saying that all purebred dogs were inbred at one point? I am struggling to understand.
This is actually only one case of how the white tigers are kept around. As Chealsey said, the only way to get a certain gene to become dominant both parents need to have that certain gene…just like with us. If your parents both have brown eyes then there’s only a 25% chance of you having blue eyes and ONLY if blue eyes run in either of their families…(basic gr 9 biology there)…same things with animals. Dog breeders all over the world use inbreeding just to keep the line’s pure…but they do it CAREFULLY and keep track of who’s who…
Inbreeding and outcrossing.
Because of the extreme rarity of the white tiger allele in the wild,[7] the breeding pool was limited to the small number of white tigers in captivity. According to Kailash Sankhala, the last white tiger ever seen in the wild was shot in 1958.[7][22][23] Today, there is such a large number of white tigers in captivity that inbreeding is no longer necessary. A white Amur tiger may have been born at Center Hill and has given rise to a strain of white Amur tigers. The white tiger pictured on the right is at the ZooParc de Beauval in France, and came from Center Hill. A man named Robert Baudy realized that his tigers had white genes when a tiger he sold to Marwell Zoo in England developed white spots, and bred them accordingly.[24] The Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa Bay has four of these white Amur tigers, descended from Robert Baudy’s stock.
It has also 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. The white tigers Ranjit, Bharat, Priya and Bhim were all outcrossed, in some instances to more than one tiger. Bharat was bred to an unrelated orange tiger named Jack from the San Francisco Zoo and had an orange daughter named Kanchana.[25] 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 with an unrelated orange tigress named Kimanthi at the Cincinnati Zoo. ankam Ranjeeth had several mates at the Omaha Zoo.[26].
The last descendants of Bristol Zoo’s white tigers were a group of orange tigers from outcrosses which were bought by a Pakistani senator and shipped to Pakistan. Rajiv, Pretoria Zoo’s white tiger, who was born in the Cincinnati Zoo, was also outcrossed and sired at least two litters of orange cubs at Pretoria Zoo. Outcrossing is not necessarily done with the intent of producing more white cubs by resuming inbreeding further down the line.
Outcrossing is a way of bringing fresh blood into the white strain. The New Delhi Zoo loaned out white tigers to some of India’s better zoos for outcrossing, and the government had to impose a whip to force zoos to return either the white tigers or their orange offspring.
Siegfried & Roy performed at least one outcross.[27] In the mid-1980s they offered to work with the Indian government in the creation of a healthier strain of white tigers. The Indian government reportedly considered the offer;[28] however, India had a moratorium on breeding white tigers after cubs were born at New Delhi Zoo with arched backs and clubbed feet, necessitating euthanasia.[28] Siegfried & Roy have bred white tigers in collaboration with the Nashville Zoo.
Also, if you look at it in relation to humans…children all over the world are born everyday with “defects”…whether it’s a missing arm or leg, or downs or any of the millions of defects…none of them are “inbred” but it still happens no matter what we do to stop them.
It’s physically possible to have white tigers who aren’t from inbreeding if the zoo’s take the time and effort to keep track of lineage and the do their due diligence to keep it from happening.
this is beyond-belief horrible. Care2 just launched a petition against these breeding practices also. I am sharing with as many people as I can. 🙁
I’m honestly not sure what to think of this. It’s sad that they’re breeding these tigers in the name of conservation. However, strip away the conservation tag and the practice is no worse than purebreeding dogs, which I don’t think anyone except the most extreme animal liberation activists have a problem with.
This shouldn’t be aloud to happen…. If we where to kill an animal its animal cruilty and all this is..is excepted cruelty but law..
Then why are there white lions in the wild if it’s inbreeding shouldn’t there only be white lions in captivity.
Robbie inbreeding happens in the wild where ever small pockets of big cats end up being separated from others of their kind. The FL Panther is a perfect example of a lot of the problems that occur (crossed eyes, kinked tails, still borns) when a small pocket of cats become too inbred. That is how white tigers have occurred in the 1950s, but it’s just too hard for any who are born in the wild to survive because other predators can easily spot them and they could never sneak up on prey. Lions, living in prides, enable some of these very inbred animals to live to adulthood, but you won’t see white lions born into healthy genetically diverse prides.
If people bothered to think about it, they would realize that an animal never (or so rarely as to be almost never) encountered in nature has to be a genetic fluke that is then propagated solely for aesthetic purposes. However, the issue of mutations in big cats is not cut-and-dried: they crop up in the wild without any human manipulation, though the pressures of natural selection make this rare. King cheetahs do seem to occur randomly (as in very, very rarely) in wild populations, and "white" lions have been encountered in the wild as well–that these are the result of breeding in isolation for a long, long time, and probably genetic nightmares goes without saying, but my point is not all such mutants are the work of man. While I agree that white and tabby tigers, to say nothing of lion/tiger hybrids, are mutations with no real value from a conservation standpoint (any more than breeding bulldogs is productive to saving the wolf) it's a little disingenuous to suggest that a freak or mutation cannot be encountered in nature. However, I wholeheartedly agree with you that responsible conservation means not mixing subspecies and breeding for healthy, normal-looking animals–and when all is said and done, Nature got it right on the big cats with no help from man when she made them!
Sad truth about white tigers.
🙁
We have white Tigers and Lions at West midland Safari Park, are they bread the same way? It is not normal, they may look pretty but it is not fare.
A very sad story.
I have seen on Nat Geo White Tiger Cubs born from a Orange Tiger mom. This occurred several times with & mix of both colored cubs form the same Mom. This was in the wild. But I do not like the inbreeding at zoos.
I have also personally seen this and also seen white lions born from regular colored ones.
This is, of course, possible. The gene for the white coloration does exist in the wild and wild-type individuals can be carriers, as it is a recessive gene. If two such individuals mate, it is entirely possible for white cubs to be born. That said, those cubs will be at a disvantage, and rarely, if ever, reach adulthood.
Power and greed, truly the biggest human problem. A white animal be it either a big cat or a buffalo is a sacred anomaly and rate. They do exist and can happen without inbreeding or genetic mutation. Human beings have learn to stop this ridiculousness behavior. No one should go to the zoo that does this. If we hit them in the pocket maybe they will learn.
Read on
Read on
I dislike the fact that sisters and brothers, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters; are bred just to get this new type of Tiger… Yes, White Tigers are rare- but I find it quite wrong to breed related animals; it's like for humans too. It causes problems for the litter that is born, either blindness, deaf or other issues; such as creating a rare blood type.
But, White Tigers are beautiful creatures- so people continue to breed them. The lovely lush white fur, brown lines and gorgeous bright blue eyes are all too much to miss out for humans.
If only the White Tiger already existed like the Begum Tiger- it wouldn't be such an issue. I would find it impossible for a White Tiger to appear in the wild without the interruption of Humans.
I'm not an expect or anything, but once a litter of cubs are born and grown; the male cubs are driven out to find their own mate and land, as for the females they can go when they please; but once the mother comes back into heat, the daughters must also leave because mum's attention has to be shared now and because they are grown up, she has to think of her self and her new unborn litter to care for, rather than her grown up cubs that can defend for themselves… Therefore it is pretty much impossible for the son and mother to mate. Daughter and father are more likely but not, because by the time the Mother has had her litter, the father of that litter would of mated several times with several different females and have a lot of litter coming his way- he would be able to identify his own daughter, even as grown; because once a cub crosses the path with an adult male or female tiger {except the mother} they could be killed… he parent knows the cubs scent either from it's mother, or as it's own because it comes from his genes.
However, of course a mother can kill her own young; either from bothering her too much for milk, for food, being too loud, distracting her from a kill- or accidentally rolling over and squashing her cubs. But, the father may also mistake the cub for a meal, not as his own {from smelling a different male scent on the cub, which the mother probably mated with another male along with him so the cubs would be save in both their eyes, as they'd think the cubs are both their own} or just from annoying him too much also.
Very sad 🙁
Very sad..never knew tge story always thought they were just naturally that way..i guess no
I'm not arguing the facts about white tigers… But according to this site white lions are a breed that needs saving. They reintroduced a pride into the wild. http://whitelions.org/
His name is Kenny Rogers he passed away about 5 yrs ago of cancer. He lived at http://www.turpentinecreek.org/ as does his mother Loretta Lynn and his brother Wille Nelson. His brother Willie has a mild form of deformations and retained his orange and black stripes. Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge rescues tigers from owners and breeders.
Kept me from having to post.
Thanks for that.
This needs to stop.
I agree whole heartedly, the original male is a naturally occuring genetic trait in the wild. If the zoos did not continually inbreed these tigers but outcrossed them to unrelated orange tigers then in 7 generations they would be classed as unrelated. I have breed birds for over 20 years and the genetics is still the same as in tigers. It is the breeders who are to blame for a quick way to try to exploit these beautiful animals.
White lions are a genetic mutation native to a certain population of African lions. That doesn't mean they need saving. The rest of their kin do just fine as long as humans don't bother them. However, white lions are not a hybrid or false population like white tigers are. Just terribly inbred. That is the fault of the human breeders who chose to do this.
They are not sacred, they are merely animals with a skin/fur condition. It is only genetic and confers no specialness beyond the appearance. Please do not contribute to malarkey about sacredness which should be reserved for that which is either extremely ancient (wilderness or the planet) and that which is truly new (babies of all kinds regardless of how they look). I'm very fussy about that.
Fascinating!!! Thank you for the information.
It's sad nonetheless.
This kills me to read.. 🙁
This is as horrendous as the breeding of dogs in this country. The dogs are getting so bad that they can't breathe with the pushed in faces and malformed nostrils. Not to mention the malformed skeletal systems.
DOES THIS MEAN THAT THE ENTERTAINERS…SIGFRIED AND ROY (WHO THEMSELVES CLAIM TO OWN WHITE TIGERS ) DID SO THROUGH THE CRUELTY AND MALICE OF INBREEDING… WHAT A HORRIBLE, INHUMANE THING TO DO. THEY ARE NOT THE ROLE MODELS I WOULD WISH TO KNOW.
Terrible
Well, that's a terribly photoshopped cover image, but the issue is very real.
Within your own kind yes, not within your own family. Basically, a purebred Bengal tiger would be the offspring of Bengal parents, who's own ancestry is purely Bengal. Inbred, of course, means that they bred one tiger with another that it is directly related to. This sort of thing causes defects and other problems, and is generally something you want avoid doing. Although some breeders, such as those looking for the white tiger gene, do so regardless.
Horrific! Had no idea
That's been photoshopped!
unlike the benefit of the genetic gene that caused polar bears to turn white, this particular mutation is not beneficial to tigers. If not for human interference, these white tigers would not have survived beyond being a cub let along long enough to breed with another white tiger, so your statement is somewhat in accurate and comparing humans creating white tigers to nature creating white polar bears is scientifically lacking.
Jason Rumsey except that white tigers don't live in snowy regions. There have been no reports of purebred Siberian tigers being born white in the wild.
Thank you, BCR!! I finally know why r they white…
It can happen in the wild sometimes, it's an extremely rare mutation and these tigers are healthy (although impractical to survive, but it can happen).
In captivity, it's different, they're inbred and it's very dangerous.
Is there a page yu can donate to to save the tigers
Hi Emma! You can check out this page at our site: http://bigcatrescue.org/donate/
Stop going to the zoo
This is an amazing non-profit organization. I went to the actual place in Florida where they keep the rescued cats, and I just love how humane they are. This is a seroius issue, and I am glad that they teach awareness about it.
microchip
Yes inbreeding has issues especially with deformities and sufferings. On the other hand, white tiger would gone forever, extinct from this planet if not preserved. So it’s a matter of choosing which one is the solution we really want.