more black than white tiger

is the cub supposed to have been born looking like a regular white cub and then changed colour? That seems a bit odd. I think there may a fault in the reporting....

I did like this line: "Reddy ruled out the possibility of inbreeding as the reason for the unusual colouring. "Inbreeding occurs only over generations. The mother, white tigress Anu, has only given birth twice," he said."
 
the partly-black tiger which is the subject of Arizona Docent's article above was killed in a mating attempt last year.

Mating bid turns fatal for white tiger at Chennai's Vandalur Zoo - The Hindu
23 August 2013

A three-year-old male white tiger succumbed to injuries suffered during a fight with its potential mate, a nine-year-old Royal Bengal tigress, at Vandalur Zoo on Thursday.

The tigress, also severely injured following the fight, is battling for life.

Deep wounds in the brain had resulted in the tiger’s death, a zoo official said. The incident comes as a blow to officials at the Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur. They have been trying to prevent in-breeding among white tigers and strengthen the species gene through cross breeding.

Christened by former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in September 2010, the deceased white tiger, Sembian, was paired with a nine-year-old Royal Bengal tigress, Sathya, a few months ago.

The Royal Bengal tigress was brought from the Indira Gandhi Zoological park in Visakhapatanam in December 2012 in exchange of a female bison from Vandalur.

The tigers were kept in separate cages in a common enclosure but away from the other big cats in order to help them get close to each other.

On August 7, zoo officials left Sembian and Sathya together but less than an hour later, the tigers came to blows and severely injured each other. By the time zoo officials reached the enclosure, the animals were bleeding heavily and had deep wounds in the head, stomach and legs. The pair was taken to the veterinary clinic inside the zoo and treated. After a prolonged battle, Sembian died on Thursday.

According to a zoo vet, unlike other white tigers at the zoo, Sembian was largely black in colour due to dominance of pigment melanin in his skin. “The unusual colour might have made it difficult for Sathya to accept Sembian resulting in a fight between the two,” the vet said.

Earlier, this year, the zoo officials were successful in producing three healthy cubs from the cross-breeding of another Royal Bengal tiger and white tigress. Currently, the zoo has 13 white tigers and 10 Royal Bengal tigers.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Arizona Docent said:
Cub is not very clear in photo, but if you enlarge it, it looks like it has unusually thick stripes covering more of the coat than the base color. I have seen photos of orange tiger skins like this, but never white.
Click to expand...

To me it looks the opposite, that the dark is in the (white) base colour, rather than it having thicker stripes. I've seen film of Orange tigers that have the much thicker striping patterns, which I think is also a genetic mutant, but to me it doesn't look like one of those. By 'pure white' I presume they mean the other two cubs are normal white patterning, like the mother is.
 
Last edited:
Pertinax said:
To me it looks the opposite, that the dark is in the (white) base colour, rather than it having thicker stripes. I've seen film of Orange tigers that have the much thicker striping patterns, which I think is also a genetic mutant, but to me it doesn't look like one of those. By 'pure white' I presume they mean the other two cubs are normal white patterning, like the mother is.

It would be interesting to see how it develops as it matures, and if the dark colour fades or not.
Click to expand...
as per the article above, "Sembian was largely black in colour due to dominance of pigment melanin in his skin." The tiger is now dead.
 
the article itself is about the partly-black tiger being killed in a mating attempt. The photo attached to the article I think is not of the two animals in question. I was confused about that as well, but the article plainly says the tiger killed was the partly-black tiger and that the other regular white tiger was also seriously injured.
 
Last edited:
Chlidonias said:
as per the article above, "Sembian was largely black in colour due to dominance of pigment melanin in his skin." The tiger is now dead.
Click to expand...

Ah, sorry, I didn't read it properly.:o I realise now the cub(photo'd) and the adult tiger(not pictured) referred to are one and the same?

The photo accompanying the article is of two 'normal' White tigers, not the 'black' one. I doubt his colour had anything to do with his death- more likely due to incompatability or poor timing of the introduction.
 
Pertinax said:
Ah, sorry, I didn't read it properly.:o I realise now the cub(photo'd) and the adult tiger(not pictured) referred to are one and the same?

The photo accompanying the article is of two 'normal' White tigers, not the 'black' one. I doubt his colour had anything to do with his death- more likely due to incompatability or poor timing of the introduction.
Click to expand...
that's fine, I have edited my sentence above the article to make it clearer :)

I haven't been able to find any photos of the tiger as an adult which is surprising, but I did find this better photo of it as a cub where you can see just how black it is: Tamilnadu | Destinations | Aringnar Anna Zoological Park
 
I've heard about so-called 'black tigers' before but have actually never seen one that warrants that description before. In this 2nd better photo, the black looks like a sooty ground colour, particularly on the lower back, flanks and an area on the shoulder. The stripes look fairly typical underneath it.

I would certainly have liked to see a photo of this tiger as an adult too- its odd they didn't have one to use with the article.
 
Chlidonias said:
I haven't been able to find any photos of the tiger as an adult which is surprising, but I did find this better photo of it as a cub where you can see just how black it is: Tamilnadu | Destinations | Aringnar Anna Zoological Park
Click to expand...
that link no longer goes to where it used to go, but I have managed to find some additional photos of this animal: when it was new-born, when it was older, and when it was adult.

I couldn't attach the middle photo (it's a jpeg) so the link is here: LOSING STRIPES? The white-turned-black tiger cub at the Vandalur zoo in Chennai
 

Attachments

  • black tiger1.jpg
    black tiger1.jpg
    86.9 KB · Views: 4
  • black tiger3.jpg
    black tiger3.jpg
    49.9 KB · Views: 11
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top