It's no secret that in our time, wildlife needs protection. But some Red Book animals, such as the white tiger, live only in zoos. This predator does not belong to a separate subspecies. He is a specimen of a Bengal tiger, which has an innate mutation. This deviation leads to white coat color with black or light brown stripes. In addition, such specimens have blue or green eyes, which is completely unusual for tigers with the usual color of fur.
Habitat
The Bengal white tiger is an animal found in Central and Northern India, Burma, Bangladesh and Nepal. It should be noted that the "Bengalis" most often have a red color. But if a white tiger is born in the wild, then it will be very difficult for him to survive due to the fact that with this color he will not be able to hunt successfully, as he is too noticeable for his victims.
There is an opinion that these predators come from Siberia, and their color is camouflage in the conditions of a snowy winter. But this is a fallacy, because white tigers have nevertheless appeared in India.
General information
The white tiger is an animal that is born with a frequency of one individual per 10 thousand with the usual color of fur. Messages about these predators were recorded for several decades, and they came mainly from Bengal, Assam, Bihar, but there were especially many of them from the territory of the former principality of Reva.
The first documented detection of a white tiger dates back to the middle of the 20th century. Then one of the hunters accidentally found the den of the animal, where, among the usual, there was a white male tiger cub, and took it with him. This man tried to breed offspring of the same color from him, having happened to him with an ordinary female. The first attempts were unsuccessful, but after some time he still managed to get the second generation of white tigers.
More than half a century has passed since that moment. The population of these animals with an unusual color has increased significantly. Interestingly, all the white tigers currently held in captivity in various zoos in the world are descendants of the same individual that was once found by a hunter in the jungle. From this it follows that all these representatives of the cat tribe are related to each other. Now there are about 130 white tigers held in captivity, of which about 100 are in India. Unfortunately, the last representative of these animals, who once lived in nature, was shot dead as far back as 1958.
Genetic Failures
As scientists have proved, the white tiger is an animal that is not an albino. This coat color can only be caused by the presence of recessive genes. This means that a true albino tiger cannot have black or brown stripes. If both parents have an orange color, but they are carriers of certain genes, then the chance that they will have offspring with white fur is approximately 25%. Now let's take another case. For example, if the parents have a different color, that is, one of them is white and the other is orange, then the chance of getting light offspring increases to 50%.
As mentioned above, among white tigers come across albinos. These animals have plain fur without traditional stripes. In organisms, there is practically no such coloring pigment, so their eyes are red due to the blood vessels visible on them.
White tiger: animal description
Such individuals are often inferior in size to their red relatives, and growth retardation has been observed in them since childhood. As mentioned earlier, these tigers have white striped fur and blue or green eyes. Sometimes they have various birth defects due to genetic malfunction. These include clubfoot, poor eyesight and strabismus, kidney problems, and a curved neck and spine. Nevertheless, to argue that because of this the infant mortality of white tigers is too high is not necessary.
These beautiful and unusual animals are everywhere considered extremely valuable specimens. And this applies not only to zoos. Mass culture is also influenced by white tigers, for example, some of the popular music groups have dedicated songs to them.
Amur tigers
I must say that Bengal individuals are not the only ones that have similar gene mutations. White Amur tigers with black stripes sometimes come across. But this happens much less frequently.
The current population of these beautiful animals includes both representatives of Bengal and hybrid Bengal-Amur individuals. Therefore, now scientists are at a loss as to which of them initially belongs to this recessive white gene.
Despite the fact that from time to time information is received about Amur white tigers, their very existence in nature is still not documented. Many zoologists believe that this subspecies does not have such mutations. Many zoos contain Amur tigers with white fur, but they are not purebred, as they were actually obtained by crossing with Bengal.
Attitude
For many centuries, the white tiger (photos of the animal are presented in this article) has been a creature shrouded in a halo of mystery. Sometimes these animals instilled fear or became objects of worship. In the Middle Ages in China, their images were applied to the gates of Taoist temples. It was believed that the white tiger is an animal that can protect people from various evil spirits. He personified the keeper of a certain country of the dead, and also symbolized longevity. The Chinese people firmly believed that demons should be horrified by such a formidable guard, therefore they often decorated the graves of their relatives with statues in the form of this animal.
At the end of the 80s. last century, archaeologists, digging up graves in Henan province, discovered a tiger drawing, whose age is about 6 thousand years. It was a mascot of shells lying near the body. Today it is considered the most ancient amulet depicting a white tiger.
In Kyrgyzstan, this animal was said to be able to solve almost any human problems and difficulties. For this, the shamans, dancing a ritual dance and gradually falling into a trance, asked the tiger for help.
But in his homeland, in India, there is still one belief. It says that a person who is lucky to see a white tiger with his own eyes will be given complete happiness and enlightenment. It was from this country, where he was perceived as a super-being, but quite material, and not mythical, that he spread throughout the world.