Birth of rare white tiger triplets
Photo from SCMP video ‘Rare white tiger triplets, with two even rarer nearly stripeless cubs, debut in China’
On January 2nd of 2023, white tiger triplets made their public debut in Nantong Forest Safari Park of the Jiangsu Province, China. Conceived naturally in the wildlife park, they were born to a white bengal tiger on September 30, 2022. Two of the cubs are almost snow-white, lacking the stripes of a tiger; whereas the third cub, unlike the latter, was born with black stripes throughout the body. White fur in tigers is a very rare genetic mutation due to a double recessive allele in the genetic code, happening only to the bengal tiger subspecies. White tigers in the wild are as few as 1 in 10,000 tiger births, while snow tigers are as rare as 1 in 100,000 births. Only around 200 white tigers exist in the world today- all results of nine generations of inbreeding- in captivity in zoos, theme parks, or exotic animal pet collections. There are now 9 snow white tigers in total in China.
White tigers have sapphire eyes instead of green or yellow eyes like a normal bengal tiger. They are stronger, more muscular and aggressive than orange bengal tigers. They also grow faster and are heavier than orange Bengal tigers.
In the wild, the white coat of a tiger would be a hindrance, not providing the tigers with the camouflage reducing their chances of survival. Hence, why white tigers no longer exist in the wild. Deer are the main prey for tigers, and being terrestrial mammals, they see the orange color of a tiger’s coat as green, allowing tigers to blend in with grass.
Bibliography
https://www.mkewithkids.com/post/white-tigers-facts-for-kids/#:~:text=Only%20around%20200%20white%20tigers%20exist%20in%20the%20world%20today.,-All%20of%20them&text=What%20is%20this%3F,-Report%20Ad&text=There%20are%20currently%20no%20known%20white%20tigers%20in%20the%20wild.
https://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/8-fast-facts-white-tigers/#:~:text=They're%20simply%20tigers%20that,in%2010%2C000%20wild%20tiger%20births.
https://www.scmp.com/video/china/3205558/rare-white-tiger-triplets-two-even-rarer-nearly-stripeless-cubs-debut-china
https://tigersinamerica.org/whitetiger/#:~:text=There%20are%20200%20white%20tigers,levels%E2%80%94and%20the%20breeding%20continues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cYsn1cUvv0&ab_channel=SouthChinaMorningPost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D49EUYs8aj4&ab_channel=HiChina
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/the-truth-about-white-tigers
https://kidskonnect.com/animals/white-tigers/
https://www.tigerhaven.org/page.asp?page=6&p=education#:~:text=Tigers%2C%20like%20most%20predators%2C%20use,the%20jungles%20or%20in%20grass.
https://www.livescience.com/why-are-tigers-orange#:~:text=Terrestrial%20mammals%20like%20deer%20are,or%20crouching%20in%20the%20grass.
