White tiger

My favourite animal is a white tiger. I like it because it's a very rare, beautiful and mysterious animal. It's about 3 meters long and it weighs approximately 180-285 kg. They have blue eyes, a pink nose, and creamy white fur covered with chocolate colored stripes. The white tiger is born to a Bengal tiger that has the gene needed for white coloring. This gene in the genetic code, and only turns up naturally about once in every 10,000 births. A pure white tiger has no stripes and are totally white. White tigers are white colored Bengals, they are not albinos and they are not a separate subspecies of tigers. All white tigers are cross eyed, whether it shows or not, because the gene that causes the white coat always causes the optic nerve to be wired to the wrong side of the brain. White tigers are very rarely found in the wild. In about 100 yeas only 12 white tigers have been seen in the wild in India. They are almost extinct and most of the ones living are in captivity, mostly in zoos. White tigers in the wild live to be about 10 to 15 years while tigers in zoos usually live between 16 and 20 years. Because they are solitary animals, they hunt mostly at night. The White Tiger is a good swimmer, but a very poor climber. 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.

http://www.indiantiger.org/white-tigers/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_tiger
http://www.indianchild.com/white_tigers.htm

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/

white tiger, by: jornic