Baby white tiger from ZOO Bratislava, Slovakia


Thank you for your comments and faves
__________________

I offer you WOLF PHOTO CALENDAR FOR FREE! Just it, please





And I sell a mug with wolf photos!



__________________


I wonder why is white tiger white. That’s because it is albino, right?
White tigers are NOT albinos. Albinos would have red eyes. White colour of tigers is caused by recessive gen, whole genetic and colourful deviation is called leucism. White tigers usually have blue eyes and white fur with visible dark stripes.

White tigers are so wonderful! What a shame that this species is endangered in the wild
At first, white tiger is NOT a species at all!
In the wild, white tigers extremely RARELY occured amoung Bengal tigers.
But white tiger is NOT a separate species of tiger.

If white tigers are so rare, how comes that we can see them in so many animal parks?
In 1951, people managed to capture a white male cub of tiger. It was brought to captivity, where the male mated with normal orange female. People hoped to get white babies, but newborn cubs were orange. People then got and idea – and they let the white male mate with his OWN daughter. As a result, white babies were born. All white tigers in America and Europe have origin from this pair and their babies.

Er... origin from this pair and its babies?
Yes. To produce more white tigers, INBREEDING was needed. What does inbreeding mean? It means that mothers have babies with their sons or fathers have babies with their daugthers. Or siblings mate to produce more white cubs.
In fact, white tigers are DOMESTIC breed! They are closer to domestic CATS than to fantastic wild tigers. There are at least ELEVEN colour variants of white tigers – it reminds of breeding some budgies.

That’s sick, is not it? What about the result? What abouth health of white tigers?
Of course, inbreeding resulted in serious health damage of white tigers. Many of white tigers cubs are born dead or damaged. Cats have serious problems, for example with their spin. They are also cross-eyed, which is caused by white recessive gen itself. They are simply over crossed and bred poor creatures.

But inbreeding happens even in the wild, for example among lions!
Can you, please, tell me, which wild animal species has an origin in only ONE already inbred pair and then in one line of always inbred animals? In a healthy big population, single cases of inbreeding are not bad, but only inbreeding is.

But white tigers are still tigers after all! They surely need to be protected?
No. White tigers have NO value for protection of tigers.
Not only they are damaged. Not only they are domestic species. But to limit the results of inbreeding, animal facilities tried to mix blood of white tigers, letting them mate with another subspecies of tigers. Which means, that white tigers have no value for protection of tigers.
You need animals with pure blood for every conservation effort – pure blooded Amur tigers, pure blooded Malayan tigers, pure blooded Sumatran tigers. Some mixed, damaged, cross-eyed inbred white tiger has really NO value for protection of tigers.
In fact, their keeping is even more problematic – ZOOs keep them as an attraction instead of keeping and breeding REALLY endangered subspecies of tigers (Amur, Sumatran, Malayan), which really need protection. Those subspecies must be supported by ZOOs to have a chance to survive. Not white mutants.

Wait... why do ZOOs, even respected ones, keep white tigers then?
White tigers are good for marketing, as they are very attractive.
The question is not only black and white – white tigers attract the visitors and ZOOs can use money from entrance fees to breed and protect really endangered species of animals.
But American asociation of ZOOs has already banned breeding of new baby white tigers, hoping to remove this little “deviation“ from North American ZOOs in 20 years.
Nobody wants to shoot white tigers right now. They are living creatures and they deserve to live in the best living conditions. We should just stop breeding new ones.

Who the hell told you about this? What a crap!
Check the internet for info.
To provide real fact about white tigers, I contacted one of the most respected animal facilities in the world – ZOO Prague, which is very successful at breeding endangered species of animals, including tigers. This ZOO’s task was to control Europen population of white tigers in 2009. They were nice enough to send me valuable source of info.
[link] [link] [link]

So... why do YOU post photos of white tigers then? What a hypocryte you are. You just want to have faves.
My photos of orange tigers are far more popular than photos of white tigers.
I also use my photos to INFORM people – and be sure that many of them were shocked when they learned about the origin of white tigers. Usually, people thank me for informing them, but of couse, some trolls who flame me for presenting those facts occur time to time.
Also... white tigers are nice – and they will probably disappear in few decades. Why should I deny their existence? It is good to use images of them to remeber their presence and to remember, how people in fact “created“ them, letting them suffer for their beauty.



To see more, look at my ZOO and BIG CATS GALLERY



_{This photo belongs to me and I can very easily prove, that it was me, who took this shot. So please, respect my copyright if you want to use my work, ask me first to gain my permission, please! Thank you}