White, Black & Golden Tigers

[Pckts]

Gaute, that book is not easy to find. You cant just go to a library and check it out, very few libraries carry any of these books, i have to go and find them and buy them.

Now about Ranthambhore, it absolutely had a baby boom this year. More new mother and cubs where filmed and pictured than in the past years. This is coming from eye witnesses who go out and tour every day during the season. Kaziranga is another booming population, kahna, tadoba etc... They are now opening new parks for tourists, etc...
You say we need to "conserve" these animals, but conservation is not captively breeding animals to release them later just to suffer the same problems down the road. The only "conservation" we should assist with, is the conservation of earth. Like I have said many times, these animals are only in danger because of us and the only way they can become healthy again is for us to stop destroying everything they need to survive. You don't "conserve" the president, you "protect" him. If you say these cats need our protection from us, than I absolutely agree.

Now onto the first link
“The white tiger in captivity in Rewa was caught in December 1915 in the jungles of the State near Sohagpur. He was about two years of age at the time. There were two more white tigers at the time in Southern Rewa related to this tiger but it was believed that the mother of this animal was not white. A big cage was kept for months in the jungle in which live pigs were placed to attract the tiger."



Like I have said before, white tigers can absolutely occur in the wild, I have yet to see a adult white tiger survive. This speaks of a two year old who was forced to hunt captive pigs. His adult mother was  orange as well. More proof that there is no way you could ever tell if the white gene is extinct, unless you tested every single tiger that walks the earth.
Also paintings are quite hard to take as fact. Since so many exist of men killing lions and tigers with their bare hands, or babies suckling from them etc, Not saying that that aren't or are white tigers, but paintings are very hard to confirm one way or another.



Now the 2nd link
"In December 1915, one of these (a two-year-old male) was captured near Sohagpur, by the Maharajah Gulab Singh of Rewa. He exhibited it at his summer palace for the next five years, until its death"
So that tiger that was caught lived to the age of 7, in captivity. Obviously a unhealthy speciman IMO.

Next is this
"On 27 May 1951, a male white tiger was captured alive in Rewa, and was housed within the now-disused summer palace of the Maharajah. This specimen was the famous Mohan, sire of the pure strain of white Bengal tigers subsequently exhibited in zoos ands circuses all over the world. Mohan was mated with many different tigers, all normal-coloured at first, from which only normal-coloured offspring were produced. However, when one of these was itself mated with Mohan, white tiger cubs were at last obtained, and the strain has thrived ever since, with new tigers introduced intermittently in order to strengthen and perpetuate the line. (Moreover, white tigers have also appeared spontaneously in other captive tiger lineages elsewhere, showing that the genetic basis for white tigers is more widely distributed through the world tiger population than once assumed.)

This captive-breeding programme was studied in depth by Hong Kong University zoologists Drs Ian W.B. Thornton and K.K. Yeung, together with Dr K.S. Sankhala from Delhi Zoological Park, and in 1967 the trio published a [i]Journal of Zoology paper. In it, they proposed that the white tiger form was caused by a recessive mutant allele when present homozygously (i.e. represented by two copies, as opposed to just one, or none at all). Further studies by Thornton (by then residing at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia) into the inheritance of the white phenotype (coat appearance) in tigers confirmed this (Journal of Zoology, 1978)."

This shows that all over the world, white tigers came from mohan. Not just N. America
Also shows the its a mutant gene that can occur naturally and is recessive which makes it almost impossible to tell which tigers do or don't have it unless every single one is tested.


I did enjoy that 2nd article, very good info on it.
TFS













So my stance absolutely remains the same, I have yet to see any evidence of a white tiger being able to successfully reach adulthood in the wild, let a lone breed. I absolutely believe that white tigers occur in nature. And the chances of any surviving to adulthood are extremely slim.

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