Genetics of the White Tiger
White Tigers can ONLY exist in captivity by continual inbreeding, such as father to daughter, brother to sister, mother to son and so forth. This is because the white color is the result of a double recessive allele (gene) and thus the white color can only be produced by inbreeding one tiger carrying the recessive gene for the white color to another tiger carrying the same recessive gene.
Before the five remaining species of tigers were pushed to the brink of extinction by the activities of humans, the random occurrence of one normal colored tiger carrying the recessive gene for the white color breeding to another normal colored tiger also carrying the recessive gene for white color, thus producing one or possibly two cubs possessing the double allele for the white color and consequently being born white, occurred about once in every 10,000 births. That statistical approximation is based upon recorded observations in the wild of white cubs.
It should be noted that the first recorded observation of a white cub was made in the mid-fifteenth century and the only wild observations of white cubs have been in Bengal tigers.
White In the Wild?
Because the white coloration is so disadvantageous to survival there is no recorded evidence of a white cub ever living long enough in the wild to become an adult. That is why white tigers ONLY exist in captivity and then ONLY as the result of continual, destructive and unethical inbreeding. Thus, the concept of the "Royal Rare White Bengal Tiger" is a myth and likely the most deceptive misconception and most destructive conservation fraud ever perpetrated on the American public.
Find more detailed information on this subject elsewhere in this web site.
How White Tigers Got Started In The US:
The truth is that all the white tigers currently in the United States are not even Bengal tigers but are worthless hybrids or crossbreds originating from normal colored offspring born to a pure Siberian male tiger and a pure Bengal female tiger that were kept together during the 1960's at the Sioux Falls, S.D. Zoo.
Unknown to the Zoo at that time or to the two private exhibitors who purchased cubs from two litters born at the Zoo, all the normal colored cubs carried the recessive gene for the white color because either or both their Siberian father or their Bengal mother was a or were random carriers of the recessive mutant gene. Thus when the two private exhibitors that purchased litter mates from the Sioux Falls Zoo unethically bred brother to sister, the recessive mutant genes were paired, producing one or two white tigers.
Find more detailed information on this subject elsewhere in this web site.
80% Mortality Rate:
Both private exhibitors have experienced neonatal mortality rates in excess of 80% because the recessive gene for the white color is a deleterious mutation and thus is co-linked to numerous other deleterious and often fatal characteristics such as immune deficiency, strabismus (crossed eyes), scoliosis of the spine (distorted spine), cleft palates, mental impairments and early death.
How The Genetics Of All Recessive Genes Work:
If we assign, say a capital "N" to represent normal color in a tiger and a small "w" to represent white color (because the white color is recessive and the orange color is dominant), then a normal colored orange tiger would be represented as "NN" and a normal colored orange tiger carrying the recessive gene for the white color would be represented as "Nw." So, if we bred a normal colored orange tiger to a normal colored orange tiger carrying the recessive gene for the white color, we would represent that cross as "NN" x "Nw" and the offspring would be represented as: half "NN" and half "Nw". In other words, one-half of the cubs would be normal orange color non-carriers and one-half would be normal color orange carriers of the recessive white gene.
Then, if the two normal color orange carriers of the white gene were bred to each other (brother to sister) the genetic representation would be: "Nw" x "Nw" and the offspring would be something like this: one-forth "NN", one-half "Nw" and one fourth "ww".
In other words, one out of four cubs, statistically, would be a a normal orange colored non-carrier cub ("NN"), one-half of the cubs would be normal orange colored carriers of the recessive white gene (2 "Nw") and one cub would be a double allele carrier of the white recessive gene ("ww") and thus be colored white.
But, when you cross a white male to a white female ("ww" x "ww") you can only have all white cubs born ("ww") and that is what The Cincinnati Zoo and individuals such as Siegfried and Roy have been doing for at least the past fifteen generations, always breeding for large size, thus unknowingly emphasizing the Siberian phenotypic or physical characteristics deriving from "Kubla," the pure Siberian male at the Sioux Falls, S.D. Zoo.
"We borrowed this infornmation, with permission" The information on this page taken from the following page on Big Cat Resuce's main web site: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/cats/wild/white_tigers_genetics.htm
CREDITS:
Information: Most of white tiger info on this website was taken from Big Cat Rescue's main website and is used here with their written permission.
The purpose of this website is to support Big Cat Rescue's efforts to educate the public regarding the truth about white tigers. Thank You, Big Cat Rescue for giving us permission to use this information and thank you for doing such a thorough job of researching and sharing the real truth about white tigers.
Photographs & Website Development: LaWanna Mitchell of RETURN2eden.org