Pristine wildness !
The striking white coat is caused by a double recessive allele in the genetic code, and only turns up naturally about once in every 10,000 births. Amazingly, the Bengal tiger is the only subspecies in which it seems to happen. As beautiful as it may look, life as a white tiger can't be easy when your life depends on being able to hide from and/or sneak up on things.
Habitat & Range
Tigers usually stay in an area from about 10 to 30 square miles where there is enough prey, cover/shelter and water to support them. Territory actually depends on the amount of prey that is available. The more concentrated the prey the smaller an area a tiger needs to survive.
Life span
White tigers in the wild live to be about 10 to 15 years while tigers in zoos usually live between 16 and 20 years.
Diet
Tigers do not hunt in social groups like lions. They are generally solitary animals. In the wild, tigers will eat pig, cattle and deer. They can eat as much as 40 pounds of meat at one time! After such a big meal a tiger will not eat again for several days. White Tigers have 30 large teeth ranging from 2.5 to 3 inches.
Tigers are generally solitary animals, except when caring for their young. Tigers keep their young with them for 2 or 3 years until the young tigers can fend for themselves.
Fascinating facts about white tiger:
- The White Tiger is a good swimmer, but a very poor climber.
- They may be slow runners, but they are stealthy enough to catch any prey in their sights.
- Because they are solitary animals, they hunt mostly at night
- White tigers are born to - - Bengal tigers that carry an unusual gene needed for white coloring.
- The other four sub-species of tiger are Siberian, South China, Indochinese, and Sumataran. There are only approximately 5,000 to 7,400 tigers left in the wild.
Status
At the beginning of this century it is estimated that there were 100,000 wild tigers, today the number is less than 8,000. Simply put, tigers are disappearing in the wild. The main threats to tigers are poaching, habitat loss and population fragmentation.