White tigers: a mystery of nature. White Tiger White tigers left
Among almost all animal species there are albinos, and tigers are no exception to the rule. All these animals are characterized by certain characteristics - white fur and red eyes; this color is associated with a small amount of pigment in the body, which is responsible for the color. Most albinos are born in rats, mice and rabbits.
In India, the killing of two real albino tigers with red eyes was recorded. Previously, white tigers lived in South Korea, but there they were completely exterminated. Although in wildlife There are many white tigers living in zoos and zoos; they are not true albinos - their fur color is white, but their eyes are blue or there are brown stripes in the lens.
People, having learned about the existence of albino tigers, came up with a lot of legends; these animals began to be feared and idolized. In Kyrgyzstan, there is a belief that a tiger with white fur can protect a person from any difficulties and problems. Shamans quite often performed rituals during which the tribe asked the white tigers to help them and send them a fertile harvest.
The Chinese believed that white tigers were protectors from evil spirits, therefore, the gates of temples were decorated with their images.
Listen to the voice of the white tiger
In Chinese mythology, the tiger is the guardian of death, and it symbolizes long life. The Chinese even placed statues of tigers in cemeteries, thereby driving out evil spirits.
White tigers are the personification of purity and holiness in many cultures around the world. Indians showed great respect for white tigers. They were sure that a person who met a white tiger would become rich and happy. If in other countries white tigers were mythical deities, then in India they are considered a real supreme being.
The remaining white tigers today live in zoos. The ancestor of albino tigers is. History shows that in 1951, a hunter discovered a den of tiger cubs, in which there were 4 tiger cubs of the usual colors, and one was completely white.
The majestic white tiger is a natural mutation. The regular tigers were killed, and the white one was taken to the palace. The unusually colored tiger was named Mohan, and he lived in the palace for 12 years. Everyone admired the beauty of this proud animal, and the ruler dreamed of getting offspring from his favorite. The grown up white tiger was mated with a tigress of the usual red color.
But the birth of the babies was disappointing, and when the male was brought together with his daughter, several red tiger cubs and one white were born. Soon quite a lot of white tigers began to live in the palace, so it was decided to start selling them.
A pair of white tigers - a lion and a lioness. Although white tigers multiplied rapidly, the Indian government recognized them as the property of the republic. Soon, albinos were sold outside of India. They appeared in national parks Great Britain, America and other countries. The beauty of white tigers amazes everyone.
White Tiger- an animal listed in the Red Book. Photo and description of a white tiger
It's no secret that wildlife needs protection these days. But some animals from the Red Book, the white tiger for example, live only in zoos. This predator is not classified as a separate subspecies. He is an individual bengal tiger, which has a congenital mutation. This deviation results in a white coat with black or light brown stripes. In addition, such specimens have blue or green eyes, which is completely unusual for tigers with the usual fur color.
Habitat
The Bengal white tiger is an animal that is found in Central and Northern India, Burma, Bangladesh and Nepal. It should be noted that “Bengals” most often have a red color. But if a white tiger is born in the wild, it will be very difficult for him to survive due to the fact that with such a color he will not be able to hunt successfully, since he is too noticeable to his victims.
There is an opinion that these predators come from Siberia, and their color is camouflage in conditions snowy winter. But this is a misconception, because white tigers 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 fur color. Reports of these predators have been 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 Rewa.
The first documented sighting of a white tiger dates back to the mid-20th century. Then one of the hunters accidentally found the animal’s lair, 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 by breeding 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 unusually colored animals has increased significantly. It is interesting that all the white tigers currently kept in captivity in various zoos around the world are descendants of the same individual that was once found by a hunter in the jungle. It follows from this that all these representatives of the cat tribe are related to each other. There are currently about 130 white tigers in captivity, of which about 100 are in India. Unfortunately, the last representative of these animals that once lived in nature was shot dead back in 1958.
Genetic failures
As scientists have proven, the white tiger is not an albino animal. 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 are orange but carry certain genes, they have about a 25% chance of producing white-furred offspring. Now let's take another case. For example, if the parents have different colors, i.e. one of them is white and the other is orange, then the chance of getting light-colored offspring increases to 50%.
As mentioned above, among white tigers there are also albinos. These animals have plain fur without traditional stripes. In the organisms of such individuals there is practically no coloring pigment, so their eyes are red due to the blood vessels visible on them.
White tiger: description of the animal
Such individuals are very often inferior in size to their red-haired relatives, and a slowdown in growth has been observed in them since childhood. As stated earlier, these tigers have white striped fur and blue or green color eye. Sometimes they have various birth defects caused by a genetic malfunction. These include clubfoot, poor eyesight and squint, kidney problems, and a curved neck and spine. But nevertheless, it is not possible to say that because of this the infant mortality rate of white tigers is too high.
These beautiful and unusual animals are considered extremely valuable specimens everywhere. And this applies not only to zoos. Mass culture also influenced by white tigers, for example some of the popular musical groups dedicated their songs to them.
Amur tigers
It must be said that Bengal individuals are not the only ones who have such gene mutations. Sometimes there are white ones too Amur tigers with black stripes. But this happens much less often.
The current population of these beautiful animals includes both Bengal and hybrid Bengal-Amur individuals. Therefore, now scientists are at a loss as to which of them originally owned this recessive white gene.
Despite the fact that information about white Amur tigers is received from time to time, their very existence in the wild has not yet been documented. Many zoologists believe that this subspecies does not have such mutations. Many zoos keep Siberian tigers with white fur, but they are not purebred, as they were actually created by crossing with Bengal tigers.
Attitude
For many centuries, the white tiger (photos of the animal are presented in this article) was a creature shrouded in an aura of mystery. Sometimes these animals inspired fear or became objects of worship. In the Middle Ages in China, their images were painted on the gates of Taoist temples. It was believed that the white tiger was an animal capable of protecting people from various evil spirits. He personified the guardian of a certain country of the dead, and also symbolized longevity. The Chinese firmly believed that demons should be terrified of such a formidable guard, so they often decorated the graves of their relatives with sculptures in the form of this animal.
At the end of the 80s. In the last century, archaeologists, digging up graves in Henan province, discovered a drawing of a tiger, whose age is about 6 thousand years. It was a shell talisman lying near the body. Today it is considered the most ancient amulet with the image of a white tiger.
In Kyrgyzstan they said about this animal that it could solve almost any human problems and difficulties. To do this, the shamans, dancing a ritual dance and gradually falling into a trance, asked the tiger for help.
But in his homeland, India, one belief still exists. It says that the person who is lucky enough to see a white tiger with his own eyes will be granted complete happiness and enlightenment. It was from this country, where he is perceived as a superbeing, but completely material, and not mythical, that he spread throughout the world.
Origin of the species and description
A mammal from the order Felidae. Predator. Refers to genus Panthera and is one of his most prominent representatives of this kind. The tiger population dates back to the Pleistocene, the remains of the predators found are up to 1.82 million years old. The first remains of ancient tigers were found on the island of Java in Asia. It was previously believed that China was the homeland of Tigers, however, recent research in this area has refuted this theory. Also, the remains of tigers of the late Pleistocene period were found in China, India, Altai and Siberia in Japan and Sakhalin.
Video: White Tiger
According to archaeological data, it is known that the tiger separated from its ancestral line more than 2 million years ago. Much earlier than other representatives of this class. Scientists also know that the first ancestors of tigers were much larger modern representatives this class. The modern white tiger was first discovered in 1951.
The color of the tiger is isolated mutations, and is very rare in the wild. This species spread due to the crossing of a white tiger with a yellow female. Parents with a normal color sometimes give birth to white offspring. IN modern world white tigers successfully live and breed in nurseries and zoos.
Appearance and features
The white tiger is a very large and strong animal. Dangerous predator. A male white tiger weighs from 180 to 270 kg; depending on where the animal lives and lifestyle, the weight and height of the animal may be greater. There were males weighing up to 370 kg. It is known that the animal that lives on the continents is much larger than the tigers living on the islands.
Features of the body structure of a white tiger:
- Height at the withers is 1.17 m. The height of adult males is approximately 2.3-2.5 m;
- Female white tigers are smaller in weight and size;
- The weight of an adult female is 100-179 kg. Height from 1.8 to 2.2 m;
- Tigers have a developed muscular body. Moreover, the front part of the body of tigers is more developed than the back part;
- The average head size of an adult male is about 210 mm. Tigers have small ears, rounded at the ends, with white hairs on them. inside ear;
- The iris of the eyes is gray-blue. Tigers see well in the dark.
Since the tiger is a predatory animal, it has a developed jaw with sharp fangs. An adult tiger has 30 teeth. The formula for the arrangement of teeth in a tiger is as follows: below there are 2 large fangs and 6 incisors, 1 minor tooth and 2 premolar teeth. On top there are 3 premolar teeth and 1 painter.
Tigers have large, developed fangs, about 9 cm in size. These fangs help kill prey and tear apart meat.
Tigers' fur is warm and dense. Tigers living in cold climates have thicker fur. Low cover, wool white. The hairs are sparsely located. The gray smoky coat has black stripes. There are about 100 black stripes on the entire body of the animal. It should be noted that white tigers are very rare, and they acquired their color due to mutation.
How long does a white tiger live?
On average, tigers live from 14 to 17 years in the wild. However, there are also centenarians who live much longer. In the conditions of the reserve, the life of a tiger is several years longer.
Where do white tigers live?
The habitat of the white tiger is the same as that of others bengal tigers. The natural habitat of this species is Northern and Central India, Nepal. Ecological region of Terai Duar. Banks of the Ganges and Bangladesh. Representatives of this genus are found in Asia. Where do they get their population from? The island of Java, Afghanistan, Iran and Hindustan.
White tigers mostly live in captivity, but in the wild this type found in the amount of 1 individual per 10 thousand tigers with normal coloring.
What does a white tiger eat?
The tiger is a predatory animal, and its diet big cats mainly consists of meat. White tigers love to eat ungulates.
The main victims of tigers are:
- roe deer;
- tapirs;
- musk deer.
Tigers can also sometimes feast on birds. Most often these are pheasants and partridges, small herbivores and other animals. And, of course, every cat loves fish. Tigers are not afraid of water and happily catch prey from it. White tigers spend a lot of time hunting.
In the summer, a tiger can sit in ambush for quite a long time, tracking down its prey. The tiger is a neat and rather cunning animal; it approaches its prey with small and careful steps. The hunt is carried out from the leeward side, so that the prey can smell its scent. Having gained confidence that the prey is incapable of escaping in a couple of leaps, the predator overtakes the victim.
For small animals, a tiger is a real death machine. It is almost impossible to escape from him. Tigers are fast and agile. While running, their speed is 60 km per hour. Having overtaken the victim, the tiger throws it to the ground and breaks its neck and spine. The tiger then carries the dead animal in its teeth to its lair, where it tears it apart with its fangs.
Features of character and lifestyle
Adult tigers are quite aggressive animals, vigilantly guarding their territories and not allowing strangers into their domain. Tigers mark their possessions by leaving urine marks everywhere on bushes, trees, and rocks. Male tigers live and hunt alone. Having sensed a stranger on his territory, the male will react to him very aggressively and try to drive the stranger out of the territory. Apart from other tigers, the tiger has no other predators.
Young tigers live alone until it is time to breed. Tigers are polygamous. And with one female there is one male. Tigers are quite family animals. They worry about their offspring, create a den, protect their offspring. They hunt and protect females and broods.
Tigers are also aggressive towards humans. A meeting between a person and a tiger in the wild means certain death. In nature reserves and zoos, animals are less aggressive and allow people to take care of themselves. Training a tiger is very difficult and dangerous. The tiger is a wild animal and domestication of this species is almost impossible. However, in America there are still cases of tigers living in houses, but these are more often the offspring of circus animals whose parents are already accustomed to people.
Social structure and reproduction
Tigers live alone and form families during the breeding season. Consisting of a male, female and brood. Most often, the male pursues the female, showing with a certain grimace that he is ready to mate. But the fact that females themselves come to males is not uncommon. If several males claim one female, a fight occurs between them. The fight may end in the death of one of the animals. The strongest gets the female.
Tigers mate several times a year. This usually happens in December or January. Although this usually does not depend on the season. The male understands that the female is ready to mate by the smell of the female’s urine. Mating occurs several times. A young female white tiger gives birth to her first litter at the age of about 4 years. Most often, after a few years, the birth of a second brood occurs. The pregnancy of a female tiger lasts about 103 days.
The tigress takes a long time to arrange her lair for the birth of cubs. Making sure it is completely safe. After all, over time, the tigress will go hunting, leaving her cubs in the den. In one litter, 3 or 4 tiger cubs are born. Tiger cubs are born blind and are fed with mother's milk for the first six months. Over time, they also begin to go hunting with their mother.
White tigers are rarely born, both heterozygous orange parents having white ancestors have a 25% chance of producing white offspring. Offspring where one parent is white and the other yellow color maybe white, maybe yellow. The probability of birth of a white tiger is 50%.
Natural enemies of white tigers
Since the White Tiger is a large and dangerous animal, it has few enemies.
TO natural enemies white tiger refers to:
- . An elephant can trample a tiger, although elephants do not experience aggression towards these animals and are able to coexist peacefully side by side. An elephant attacks a tiger only when frightened, sensing danger, or receiving an order from a person. In India, people used to hunt tigers on elephants. Killing tigers with weapons. This was the safest type of hunting for humans.
- Brown bears. can rarely cope with a large adult tiger, and on the contrary, bears killed by a tiger are often encountered. But a bear is capable of killing fragile young animals or a weakened female.
- Human. The main danger to tigers comes from humans. Destruction of natural habitats of animals by humans. The construction of cities and the cutting down of jungles and forests. The decline in population is largely due to the hunting of tigers. Chinese medicine uses the fangs, organs and tissues of tigers. And also precious animal skins are decorations in rich houses, as are stuffed animals. For a long time In India, tiger hunting in the 19th and early 20th centuries was widespread.
Population and species status
The tiger population is rapidly declining every year. There are only 6,470 individuals worldwide. There are only 400 Amur tigers. White tigers are rare and on the verge of extinction. The destruction of natural habitats, the construction of cities and roads lead to the fact that there are fewer and fewer white tigers. In addition, hunting and poaching have caused irreparable harm to tiger populations around the world.
The white tiger species is listed in the Red Book; catching and hunting tigers is prohibited. The status of the species in the Red Book is “endangered species”. White tigers are carefully protected in all countries and hunting them is prohibited.
White Tiger Conservation
To preserve the endangered species of White Tigers, the following measures have been taken:
- A complete ban on hunting tigers of any breed has been introduced. White tigers are specially protected throughout the world. In India, white tigers are a national treasure. Tiger hunting in the modern world is carried out only by poachers and is prosecuted by law. Killing tigers is punishable by law and is punishable by fines and imprisonment.
- Arrangement of nature reserves. As mentioned earlier, white tigers mainly live in nature reserves. Zoologists help maintain the population of this species by crossing white tigers with regular-colored tigers. Animals live quite comfortably in nature reserves and are able to reproduce. Almost all representatives of this species not found in nature reserves have the same ancestor. This is a white tiger named Mohan. Over time, the offspring were transported to reserves around the world, where they also gave birth to white offspring.
- Radio tracking and animal tracking systems. This method of tracking an animal is used to protect the animal and better understand the habits of animals and study the behavior of a tiger in natural environment. The animal is wearing a collar with a special tracker that transmits a GPS signal. In this way, a person can track the location of the animal. Helps track the health status of the animal and prevent serious illnesses among animals. More often this system used in large nature reserves.
The white tiger is a real miracle of nature. Dangerous, but as time has shown, a very vulnerable beast. White Tiger without human support, it can simply disappear from the face of the earth within a few decades, which is why it is so important to protect nature and maintain the tiger population. Let's save this animal on the planet for a new generation.
Most people consider white tigers to be albinos. This is not true, because albinism is the absence of the pigment melanin, which gives color to the skin, eyes and hair.
Melanin is responsible not only for dark color, it is also present in the hair light color, in blue and green eyes and skin color. Its congenital absence leads to the snow-white color of the animal’s skin and fur, while the eyes acquire a blood-red color. White tigers do not suffer from albinism, this is easy to verify by paying attention to their stripes.
There is no evidence that albino tigers exist. There is not a single photo of such a specimen. From time to time, tiger cubs with a very pale color are born in zoos, but they also have real dark stripes, although barely noticeable.
The light color appears due to a recessive mutant gene that occurs in animals as a result of inbreeding.
The first almost white tiger was demonstrated in England in 1820. Since those distant times, descriptions have come down of an animal whose stripes were visible only under certain lighting. The next time such a specimen was born was at the Cincinnati Zoo in the 20th century. On this moment tigers white color without noticeable stripes they live in zoos in the Czech Republic, Spain and Mexico. These animals mostly do not leave offspring.
White tigers are considered rare, and breeders try to get an expensive tiger cub by any means possible. Often, in pursuit of profit, they exceed acceptable standards intrafamily crossing and obtain noticeably deformed animals. This happened with the tiger Kenny, a pupil of the Arkansas nursery.
Failed attempt to get a white tiger
Animal rights activists first learned about the existence of Kenny the tiger in 2000, when he was 2 years old. His owner, in an attempt to produce offspring of white tiger cubs, carried out a series of unacceptable crossings, and the baby came out deformed.
His muzzle was flattened like a bulldog's, and his teeth were seriously crooked. These defects did not allow Kenny to be sold to a zoo, because few would want to come and admire such an animal.
Owner Kenny turned to animal rights activists from Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, who specialize in rescuing large cats. According to him, Kenny constantly lost orientation in space and hit his face against the wall.
Along with the white tiger, he gave them an ordinary orange Bengal, Willie, who suffered from strabismus. Presumably Willie came from the same litter as Kenny.
Unnecessary tigers
IN Lately The failure rate in breeding white tigers has risen sharply. This is explained by the fact that no fresh blood is poured into their genome. There are practically no such tigers in the wild; all white individuals are descendants of a single male.
Over time, gene mutations in the white tiger population only intensify, and breeders receive part of the litter of healthy ones, and part of them - deformed cubs.
In this case, mutants can be either white or traditional orange color. Zoos don't buy ugly animals. Representatives of the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary (Florida, USA), which takes in sick predators, claim that out of 30 tiger cubs born from white parents, only one will have a fairly good appearance.
One can only guess what happens to the remaining 29, because private nurseries do not report on the real situation.
Kenny's story ended relatively well. He didn't have mental disorders, felt great in the reserve and lived in it with his alleged brother Willie. Due to their physique unsuited to hunting, these animals did not show aggression and loved to play with the rehabilitation center workers.
White tigers live shorter lives than their normal counterparts. An orange Bengal tiger without genetic abnormalities can live up to 20 years or more if provided good care. Kenny died at the age of 10.
His scary face has become a symbol of the uncontrolled breeding and crossing of animals in the exotic pet industry. Unfortunately, the desire of individuals and zoos to own an original animal continues to create a demand for less than humane genetic experiments.
Interesting mutations sometimes occur in nature, as a result of which species composition animals appear with new characteristics. As a result of one of these mutations, white tigers appeared. This rather rare animal fascinates with its appearance. The white tiger differs from the usual tiger in its bright white coat with black and brown stripes and blue eyes.
In nature, white individuals are rare, since their bright appearance does not allow the belly to sneak up on prey unnoticed and presents a lot of problems during the hunt. But in captivity, white tigers successfully live and reproduce, and their way of life is no different from the way of life of their tawny relatives.
Today, there are about 130 white tigers in all zoos around the world. There they are a kind of attraction, because this mutation occurs quite rarely and only for every 10,000 tigers with normal coloration there is 1 individual with white.
Due to a misconception, many people believe that white tigers are albinos. They have the melanin pigment, although its content is less than normal. In fact, the white tiger is simply a color variation of the Bengal tiger, which exhibits the so-called recessive whiteness gene.
