Endangered White Tiger

First a brief history on the endangered white tiger: white tigers are very rarely seen in the wild. In the last 100 years, only 12 white tigers have been spotted in the wild in India but they have long since been passed off as a myth. White tigers instill a sense of unmatched beauty and awe but common folklore portrays them as the beasts of death or bad omens. So, while they may indeed be idolized by some folks, they are brutally hunted down by others.

This however was the fate of one such tiger, called Mohan, who was captured as a baby in the 50’s by a Maharaja and his hunting crew. Mohan was then destined to be caged and would from there on father a considerable portion of the world’s captive endangered white tiger population. Since the dramatic features and characteristics of the white tiger are the result of a recessive yet rare gene, all white tigers kept in zoos are now the descendents of Mohan or some of the other captive orange tigers whose recessive genes took over through special breeding programs. White tigers now represent a very disproportionate part of the captive tiger population, when compared to that of the natural world. The very rarity of these majestic creatures and the pressure put on the zoos from collectors to produce more and more white tigers means that the breeding pools of today go back to just a handful of closely interbred individuals.

The white tiger controversy in the zoos is a lot do with ethics, but is even largely related to economics. Owners of these endangered white tigers say that these animals make very popular exhibits and help by increasing the zoos revenues as well as attendance. Most genetic defects tend to be recessive and are generally masked by the normal genes, but in the case of the white tiger, with the persistent inbreeding taking place, genetic problems are accumulating and are amplified resulting in high mortality rates and severe disabilities. Approximately 80% of the white tiger cubs die from serious birth defects that are closely associated with the inbreeding that is necessary to create that white coat.

Of the few that survive, most have apparent birth defects, like retinal degeneration, strabismus (cross eyes), scoliosis of the spine, cleft palates, clubbed feet, kidney abnormalities and immune deficiency. This means that only a small percentage of these tigers are suitable as exhibits are tend to be poor performers, and so after all the efforts and expenses spent on breeding them, they are finally not even used for the purpose they were intended to be used for. Additionally, the physical problems that are related to these tigers also include mental impairments like unpredictable behavior and depression.

For every perfectly handsome white tiger that is being exploited to earn customer/tourist cash, there are anywhere from 60 to a few hundreds of these ‘deformed’ white tigers that are not show to the public – some suffer from debilitating birth defects, some are stillborn, some suffer from blindness, cross-eyes, deafness, hip or leg deformities, and so on. Most don’t even live for long and generally die fast. So, what happens to all those deformed white tigers what survive?

And keep in mind that selective breeding is also a very risky thing. There is no guarantee that you will get white tiger cubs every single time you breed. So that takes us back to the question – what happens to all the deformed babies? Killed, abandoned, tortured, abused – just like the puppies and kittens of those kitten and puppy mills. Some of these cubs are sold to the Chinese medicine trade.

The plight of these deformed tigers may very well seem surreal. In light of all this, it is understandable how some people deem the deformed white tiger as just a figment of a wild imagination, or probably a tale right out of the Twilight Zone. But when you have respectable entities like the New York Times carrying stories about the plight of the endangered white tiger, there can be absolutely no doubt to all but the most insular, that the deformed white tiger is now a reality wrought by who else? – Humans!