White tiger: Encyclopedia II - White tiger - White Tigers in Captivity

White tiger - White Tigers in Captivity

Most white tigers currently in captivity can trace ancestry to a single individual - a male named Mohan, captured in India in 1951. Although Mohan was not the first white tiger in captivity, he was the first to successfully breed in captivity. Mohan was bred to a wild-caught orange tigress named Begum, but they produced only orange cubs because Begum did not carry the white gene. Mohan was then repeatedly bred to his daughter Radha. Radha's offspring included Mohini (Enchantress). Mohan died in 1969, aged almost 20. He was the last recorded wild-caught white tiger and the first Bengal tiger to be registered in the International Tiger Studbook at Liepzig Zoo.

Because of their novel appearance, Mohan's descendents were traded to zoos around the world. Mohini went to Washington in 1960 to found a line of white tigers there. With no further white tigers being exported from India, Mohini was mated to Sampson, her orange uncle and also to her half-brother who carried the white gene. Mohini became the matriarch of Washington's white tigers and the ancestor of the majority of the white tigers outside of India.

Another genetically important white tiger is Tony (born 1971), who is the progenitor of almost all white tigers in North America. Tony is the offspring of a brother/sister pair of Amur-Bengal hybrid tigers called Raja and Sheba II owned by the Shrine Circus. Tony was bred to Mohini's orange daughter Kesari, founding an extensive dynasty of white tigers in the USA. The names of Mohan, Mohini and Tony often appear several times in the the pedigrees of white tigers alive today.

In 1980, a white tiger cub was bred at the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin from a father/daughter mating. The mother later produced more white offspring, but it is not known how she or her father came to carry the white gene.

An unrelated strain of white tigers arose at Nandankanan Biological Park, Orissa, India in the 1980s from a tiger called Deepak who was bred to his own daughter Ganga. Deepak must have inherited the white gene from his parents and passed it on to his daughter. Deepak was not related to Mohan or to Mohan's descendants.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "White Tigers in Captivity", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki