#Animals #Whitetiger
The white tiger is a pigmentation variant of the Bengal tiger, which is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Sunderbans and especially in the former State of Rewa.
The white Bengal tigers are distinctive due to the color of their
fur. The white fur caused by a lack of the pigment pheomelanin, which is
found in Bengal tigers with orange color fur. When compared to Bengal
tigers, the white Bengal tigers tend to grow faster and heavier than the
orange Bengal tiger. They also tend to be somewhat bigger at birth, and
as fully grown adults. White Bengal tigers are fully grown when they
are 2–3 years of age. White male tigers reach weights of 200 to 230
kilograms and can grow up to 3 meters in length. As with all tigers, the
white Bengal tiger’s stripes are like fingerprints, with no two tigers
having the same pattern. The stripes of the tiger are a pigmentation of
the skin; if an individual were to be shaved, its distinctive coat
pattern would still be visible.
For a white Bengal tiger to be born, both parents must carry the
unusual gene for white colouring, which only happens naturally about
once in 10,000 births. Dark-striped white individuals are well-documented in the Bengal tiger subspecies (Panthera tigris tigris or P. t. bengalensis) as well as having been reported historically in several other subspecies.
Currently, several hundred white tigers are in captivity worldwide,
with about one hundred being found in India. Their unique white color
fur has made them popular in entertainment showcasing exotic animals,
and at zoos.
The famous white Siberian tigers found in captivity are actually not pure Siberian tigers. They are instead the result of Siberian tigers breeding with Bengal tigers. The gene for white coating is quite common among Bengal tigers, but the natural birth of a white Bengal tiger is still a very rare occasion in the wild, where white tigers are not bred selectively.
The white tiger is not considered a tiger subspecies, but rather a hybrid mutant
variant of the existing tiger subspecies. If a pure white Siberian
tiger were to be born, it would therefore not be selectively bred within
the tiger conservation programs. It would, however, probably still be
selectively bred outside the program in an effort to create more white
Siberian tigers. Due to the popularity of white tigers, they are used to
attract visitors to zoos. White tigers are found in zoos in China
commonly. White Tigers are very large. They can weigh up to 300 kg and
reach more than 4 meters of length.
An additional genetic condition can remove most of the striping of a
white tiger, making the animal almost pure white. One such specimen was
exhibited at Exeter Change in England in 1820, and described by Georges
Cuvier as "A white variety of Tiger is sometimes seen, with the stripes
very opaque, and not to be observed except in certain angles of light." Naturalist Richard Lydekker
said that, "a white tiger, in which the fur was of a creamy tint, with
the usual stripes faintly visible in certain parts, was exhibited at the
old menagerie at Exeter Change about the year 1820."
Hamilton Smith said, "A wholly white tiger, with the stripe-pattern
visible only under reflected light, like the pattern of a white tabby
cat, was exhibited in the Exeter Change Menagerie in 1820.", and John George Wood
stated that, "a creamy white, with the ordinary tigerine stripes so
faintly marked that they were only visible in certain lights." Edwin Henry Landseer also drew this tigress in 1824.
The modern strain of snow white tigers came from repeated brother–sister matings of Bhim and Sumita at Cincinnati Zoo. The gene involved may have come from a Siberian tiger, via their part-Siberian ancestor Tony. Continued inbreeding appears to have caused a recessive gene for stripelessness to show up. About one fourth of Bhim and Sumita's offspring were stripeless. Their striped white offspring, which have been sold to zoos around the world, may also carry the stripeless gene. Because Tony's genome is present in many white tiger pedigrees, the gene may also be present in other captive white tigers. As a result, stripeless white tigers have appeared in zoos as far afield as the Czech Republic (Liberec), Spain and Mexico. Stage magicians Siegfried & Roy were the first to attempt to selectively breed tigers for stripelessness; they owned snow-white Bengal tigers taken from Cincinnati Zoo (Tsumura, Mantra, Mirage and Akbar-Kabul) and Guadalajara, Mexico (Vishnu and Jahan), as well as a stripeless Siberian tiger called Apollo.
In 2004, a blue-eyed, stripeless white tiger was born in a wildlife refuge in Alicante, Spain. Its parents are normal orange Bengals. The cub was named Artico ("Arctic").
Stripeless white tigers were thought to be sterile until Siegfried
& Roy's stripeless white tigress Sitarra, a daughter of Bhim and
Sumita, gave birth. Another variation which came out of the white
strains were unusually light-orange tigers called "golden tabby tigers".
These are probably orange tigers which carry the stripeless white gene
as a recessive. Some white tigers in India are very dark, between white
and orange.
A white tiger's pale coloration is due to the lack of the red and yellow pigments that normally produce the orange color. This had long been thought to be due to a mutation in the gene for the tyrosinase enzyme. A knockout mutation in this gene results in albinism,
the inability to make either pheomelanin or eumelanin, while the
consequence of a less severe mutation in the same gene is the cause of a
selective loss of pheomelanin, the so-called Chinchilla trait. The white phenotype in tigers had been attributed to this Chinchilla mutation in tyrosinase, and some publications prior to the 1980s refer to it as an albino gene for this reason. However, genomic analysis has demonstrated instead that a mutation in the SLC45A2 gene is responsible. The resultant single amino acid substitution in this transport protein, by a mechanism yet to be determined, causes the elimination of pheomelanin expression seen in the white tiger. This is a recessive trait, meaning that it is only seen in individuals that are homozygous for this mutation. Inbreeding promotes recessive traits and has been used as a strategy to produce white tigers in captivity.
The stripe color varies due to the influence and interaction of other genes. Another genetic characteristic makes the stripes of the tiger very pale; white tigers of this type are called snow-white or "pure white". White tigers, Siamese cats, and Himalayan rabbits have enzymes in their fur which react to temperature, causing them to grow darker in the cold. A white tiger named Mohini was whiter than her relatives in the Bristol Zoo, who showed more cream tones. This may have been because she spent less time outdoors in the winter. White tigers produce a mutated form of tyrosinase, an enzyme used in the production of melanin, which only functions at certain temperatures, below 37 °C (99 °F). This is why Siamese cats and Himalayan rabbits are darker on their faces, ears, legs, and tails (the color points), where the cold penetrates more easily. This is called acromelanism, and other cats breeds derived from the Siamese, such as the Himalayan and the snowshoe cat, also exhibit the condition. Kailash Sankhala observed that white tigers were always whiter in Rewa State, even when they were born in New Delhi and returned there. "In spite of living in a dusty courtyard, they were always snow white." A weakened immune system is directly linked to reduced pigmentation in white tigers.
Outside of India, inbred white tigers have been prone to crossed eyes, a condition known as strabismus, an example of which is "Clarence the cross-eyed lion", due to incorrectly routed visual pathways in the brains of white tigers. When stressed or confused, all white tigers cross their eyes
Strabismus is associated with white tigers of mixed Bengal x Siberian
ancestry. The only pure-Bengal white tiger reported to be cross-eyed was
Mohini's daughter Rewati. Strabismus is directly linked to the white
gene and is not a separate consequence of inbreeding.
The orange litter-mates of white tigers are not prone to strabismus.
Siamese cats and albinos of every species which have been studied all
exhibit the same visual pathway abnormality found in white tigers.
Siamese cats are also sometimes cross-eyed, as are some albino ferrets.
The visual pathway abnormality was first documented in white tigers in
the brain of a white tiger called Moni after he died, although his eyes
were of normal alignment. The abnormality is that there is a disruption
in the optic chiasm.
The examination of Moni's brain suggested the disruption is less severe
in white tigers than it is in Siamese cats. Because of the visual
pathway abnormality, by which some optic nerves
are routed to the wrong side of the brain, white tigers have a problem
with spatial orientation, and bump into things until they learn to
compensate. Some tigers compensate by crossing their eyes. When the
neurons pass from the retina to the brain and reach the optic chiasma,
some cross and some do not, so that visual images are projected to the
wrong hemisphere of the brain. White tigers cannot see as well as normal
tigers and suffer from photophobia, like albinos.
Other genetic problems include shortened tendons of the forelegs, club foot, kidney problems, arched or crooked backbone and twisted neck. Reduced fertility and miscarriages, noted by ”tiger man” Kailash Sankhala in pure-Bengal white tigers were attributed to inbreeding depression. A condition known as "star-gazing" (the head and neck are raised almost straight up, as if the affected animal is gazing at the stars), which is associated with inbreeding in big cats, has also been reported in white tigers. Some white tigers born to North American lines have bulldog faces with a snub nose, jutting jaw, domed head and wide-set eyes with an indentation between the eyes. However, some of these traits may be linked to poor diet rather than inbreeding.
There was a 450 lb (200 kg) male cross-eyed white tiger at the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo in Hawaii, which was donated to the zoo by Las Vegas magician Dirk Arthur. There is a picture of a white tiger which appears to be cross-eyed on just one side in Siegfried & Roy's book Mastering The Impossible. A white tiger, named Scarlett O'Hara, who was Tony's sister, was cross-eyed only on the right side.
A male white tiger named Cheytan, a son of Bhim and Sumita born at the Cincinnati Zoo, died at the San Antonio Zoo in 1992 from anaesthesia complications during root canal therapy. It appears that white tigers also react strangely to anaesthesia. The best drug for immobilizing a tiger is CI 744, but a few tigers, white ones in particular, undergo a re-sedation effect 24–36 hours later.This is due to their inability to produce normal tyrosinase, a trait they share with albinos, according to zoo veterinarian David Taylor. He treated a pair of white tigers from the Cincinnati Zoo at Fritz Wurm's safari park in Stukenbrock, Germany, for salmonella poisoning, which reacted strangely to the anaesthesia.
Mohini was checked for Chédiak-Higashi syndrome in 1960, but the results were inconclusive. This condition is similar to albino mutations and causes bluish lightening of the fur color, crossed eyes, and prolonged bleeding after surgery. Also, in the event of an injury, the blood is slow to coagulate. This condition has been observed in domestic cats, but there has never been a case of a white tiger having Chédiak-Higashi syndrome. There has been a single case of a white tiger having central retinal degeneration, reported from the Milwaukee County Zoo, which could be related to reduced pigmentation in the eye. The white tiger in question was a male named Mota on loan from the Cincinnati Zoo.
There is a myth that white tigers have an 80% infant mortality rate.
However, the infant mortality rate for white tigers is no higher than it
is for normal orange tigers bred in captivity. Cincinnati Zoo director
Ed Maruska said: "We have not experienced premature death among our
white tigers. Forty-two animals born in our collection are still alive.
Mohan, a large white tiger, died just short of his 20th birthday, an
enviable age for a male of any subspecies, since most males live shorter
captive lives. Premature deaths in other collections may be artifacts
of captive environmental conditions...in 52 births we had four
stillbirths, one of which was an unexplained loss. We lost two
additional cubs from viral pneumonia, which is not excessive. Without
data from non-inbred tiger lines, it is difficult to determine whether
this number is high or low with any degree of accuracy."
Ed Maruska also addressed the issue of deformities: "Other than a case
of hip dysplasia that occurred in a male white tiger, we have not
encountered any other body deformities or any physiological or
neurological disorders. Some of these reported maladies in mutant tigers
in other collections may be a direct result of inbreeding or improper
rearing management of tigers generally."
https://en.wikipedia.org/
Variation
White Siberian tigers
The existence of white Siberian tigers has not been scientifically documented, despite occasional unsubstantiated reports of sightings of white tigers in the regions where wild Siberian tigers live. It may be that the white mutation does not exist in the wild Siberian tiger population: no white Siberian tigers have been born in captivity, despite the fact that the subspecies has been extensively bred during the last few decades (with much outbreeding between the different Siberian lineages for purposes of conservation genetics); a recessive allele should occasionally turn up in a homozygous state during such breeding, and in this particular case yield white tigers from normally-colored parents, but no such animals have been reported.The famous white Siberian tigers found in captivity are actually not pure Siberian tigers. They are instead the result of Siberian tigers breeding with Bengal tigers. The gene for white coating is quite common among Bengal tigers, but the natural birth of a white Bengal tiger is still a very rare occasion in the wild, where white tigers are not bred selectively.
The white tiger is not considered a tiger subspecies, but rather a hybrid mutant
variant of the existing tiger subspecies. If a pure white Siberian
tiger were to be born, it would therefore not be selectively bred within
the tiger conservation programs. It would, however, probably still be
selectively bred outside the program in an effort to create more white
Siberian tigers. Due to the popularity of white tigers, they are used to
attract visitors to zoos. White tigers are found in zoos in China
commonly. White Tigers are very large. They can weigh up to 300 kg and
reach more than 4 meters of length.Stripeless white tigers and golden tabby tiger
The modern strain of snow white tigers came from repeated brother–sister matings of Bhim and Sumita at Cincinnati Zoo. The gene involved may have come from a Siberian tiger, via their part-Siberian ancestor Tony. Continued inbreeding appears to have caused a recessive gene for stripelessness to show up. About one fourth of Bhim and Sumita's offspring were stripeless. Their striped white offspring, which have been sold to zoos around the world, may also carry the stripeless gene. Because Tony's genome is present in many white tiger pedigrees, the gene may also be present in other captive white tigers. As a result, stripeless white tigers have appeared in zoos as far afield as the Czech Republic (Liberec), Spain and Mexico. Stage magicians Siegfried & Roy were the first to attempt to selectively breed tigers for stripelessness; they owned snow-white Bengal tigers taken from Cincinnati Zoo (Tsumura, Mantra, Mirage and Akbar-Kabul) and Guadalajara, Mexico (Vishnu and Jahan), as well as a stripeless Siberian tiger called Apollo.
In 2004, a blue-eyed, stripeless white tiger was born in a wildlife refuge in Alicante, Spain. Its parents are normal orange Bengals. The cub was named Artico ("Arctic").
Stripeless white tigers were thought to be sterile until Siegfried
& Roy's stripeless white tigress Sitarra, a daughter of Bhim and
Sumita, gave birth. Another variation which came out of the white
strains were unusually light-orange tigers called "golden tabby tigers".
These are probably orange tigers which carry the stripeless white gene
as a recessive. Some white tigers in India are very dark, between white
and orange.Genetics
A white tiger's pale coloration is due to the lack of the red and yellow pigments that normally produce the orange color. This had long been thought to be due to a mutation in the gene for the tyrosinase enzyme. A knockout mutation in this gene results in albinism,
the inability to make either pheomelanin or eumelanin, while the
consequence of a less severe mutation in the same gene is the cause of a
selective loss of pheomelanin, the so-called Chinchilla trait. The white phenotype in tigers had been attributed to this Chinchilla mutation in tyrosinase, and some publications prior to the 1980s refer to it as an albino gene for this reason. However, genomic analysis has demonstrated instead that a mutation in the SLC45A2 gene is responsible. The resultant single amino acid substitution in this transport protein, by a mechanism yet to be determined, causes the elimination of pheomelanin expression seen in the white tiger. This is a recessive trait, meaning that it is only seen in individuals that are homozygous for this mutation. Inbreeding promotes recessive traits and has been used as a strategy to produce white tigers in captivity.The stripe color varies due to the influence and interaction of other genes. Another genetic characteristic makes the stripes of the tiger very pale; white tigers of this type are called snow-white or "pure white". White tigers, Siamese cats, and Himalayan rabbits have enzymes in their fur which react to temperature, causing them to grow darker in the cold. A white tiger named Mohini was whiter than her relatives in the Bristol Zoo, who showed more cream tones. This may have been because she spent less time outdoors in the winter. White tigers produce a mutated form of tyrosinase, an enzyme used in the production of melanin, which only functions at certain temperatures, below 37 °C (99 °F). This is why Siamese cats and Himalayan rabbits are darker on their faces, ears, legs, and tails (the color points), where the cold penetrates more easily. This is called acromelanism, and other cats breeds derived from the Siamese, such as the Himalayan and the snowshoe cat, also exhibit the condition. Kailash Sankhala observed that white tigers were always whiter in Rewa State, even when they were born in New Delhi and returned there. "In spite of living in a dusty courtyard, they were always snow white." A weakened immune system is directly linked to reduced pigmentation in white tigers.
Genetic defects
Other genetic problems include shortened tendons of the forelegs, club foot, kidney problems, arched or crooked backbone and twisted neck. Reduced fertility and miscarriages, noted by ”tiger man” Kailash Sankhala in pure-Bengal white tigers were attributed to inbreeding depression. A condition known as "star-gazing" (the head and neck are raised almost straight up, as if the affected animal is gazing at the stars), which is associated with inbreeding in big cats, has also been reported in white tigers. Some white tigers born to North American lines have bulldog faces with a snub nose, jutting jaw, domed head and wide-set eyes with an indentation between the eyes. However, some of these traits may be linked to poor diet rather than inbreeding.
There was a 450 lb (200 kg) male cross-eyed white tiger at the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo in Hawaii, which was donated to the zoo by Las Vegas magician Dirk Arthur. There is a picture of a white tiger which appears to be cross-eyed on just one side in Siegfried & Roy's book Mastering The Impossible. A white tiger, named Scarlett O'Hara, who was Tony's sister, was cross-eyed only on the right side.
A male white tiger named Cheytan, a son of Bhim and Sumita born at the Cincinnati Zoo, died at the San Antonio Zoo in 1992 from anaesthesia complications during root canal therapy. It appears that white tigers also react strangely to anaesthesia. The best drug for immobilizing a tiger is CI 744, but a few tigers, white ones in particular, undergo a re-sedation effect 24–36 hours later.This is due to their inability to produce normal tyrosinase, a trait they share with albinos, according to zoo veterinarian David Taylor. He treated a pair of white tigers from the Cincinnati Zoo at Fritz Wurm's safari park in Stukenbrock, Germany, for salmonella poisoning, which reacted strangely to the anaesthesia.
Mohini was checked for Chédiak-Higashi syndrome in 1960, but the results were inconclusive. This condition is similar to albino mutations and causes bluish lightening of the fur color, crossed eyes, and prolonged bleeding after surgery. Also, in the event of an injury, the blood is slow to coagulate. This condition has been observed in domestic cats, but there has never been a case of a white tiger having Chédiak-Higashi syndrome. There has been a single case of a white tiger having central retinal degeneration, reported from the Milwaukee County Zoo, which could be related to reduced pigmentation in the eye. The white tiger in question was a male named Mota on loan from the Cincinnati Zoo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/
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