Panthera Tigris
by
Harold Richman
We arrived at the large gate in the chain link fence at exactly ten minutes to midnight. Our guide, George, met us right on time and unlocked the gate. We climbed into his open vehicle, huddling against the cold. It was a moonless night with the temperature hovering around the freezing point. George drove us, without lights, along the unpaved winding road until we reached our destination, a one-storey brick building. He unlocked the door and we went inside. When he turned on the light we saw that there were containers of many sizes on the floor and in the cupboards. They were full of various granulated materials. He led us along a hallway until we reached another room containing a sink and a hot plate. He then opened a heavy door. Three White Tigers bounded into the room! Fortunately they were only six weeks old. We had come to help George, the zookeeper, with the midnight feeding.
The tigers were born at the Wild Life World Zoo near Phoenix, Arizona. We spend our winters in Sun City West which is only 20 minutes from the zoo. One day we went to visit our friend, Scott, who lives right next door to the zoo. During our conversation he said, "I have been over to help George feed the tigers, If you are interested I can arrange for us to help him with the midnight feeding."
As this was the only time I would ever have the opportunity to hold a White Tiger, I eagerly accepted his offer. The tigers were about 12 inches long, not counting the tail. The cubs were not at all afraid or hesitant about coming up to us. Even though they were only six weeks old they already had the gait of a stalking tiger. George warmed up the bottles of milk and we each fed one of the cubs. As soon as they got the nipples into their mouths, they emptied the bottles in one gulp. Before they were fed the cubs were very frisky, but as soon as they had finished their milk they became lethargic. We were able to pick up the cubs, but it was like holding a squirming baby not at all like holding a pussycat
After we had fed the tigers, I spent some time discussing the origin of the White Tiger with George. I had always assumed that the White Tiger was an albino. George explained that it all started when a White Tiger cub was found in India at the Bandhavgarth National Park in 1951. The Maharajah of Rewa found the cub and raised it to maturity. There is a recessive gene which produces the white coat. However, it is not expressed normally, as the gene that produces the coloured coat of the Bengal Tiger is the dominant gene. The stripes are still present, but they may be black or brown.
Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk, was the first to discover the laws that govern inheritance. He found that each characteristic is governed by a gene. When he crossed a yellow pea with a green pea, only yellow peas were produced. He discovered that even though the seed contained a gene for green and a gene for yellow, only the yellow was expressed. He called this the dominant gene, and the one that was not expressed he called the recessive gene. The only time a recessive gene can be expressed is if the two genes contained in a fertilized egg are both recessive or, as it is now referred to, homozygous.
It appears that the White Tiger found by the Maharajah of Rewa was produced by the recessive gene that was contained in both the sperm cell and in the egg cell. By selective breeding over several generations, the Maharajah was able to raise litters of White Tigers.
White Tigers are now bred in many zoos and even by Siegfried and Roy in Las Vegas. You would think that White Tigers, since they are very rare in the wild, would be extremely valuable. However George pointed out, "Since a grown White Tiger might weigh up to 500 pounds, there are very few places suitable for housing such an exotic animal."
