We all know that the tiger is a fiery cat with black stripes, we also know about the beautiful white Bengal tigers - snow-white with black stripes. And what do we know about golden, black and Maltese tigers? Today I will tell you about them :)

golden tiger

The golden tiger is the most rare color change caused by a recessive gene. Such representatives of tigers differ slightly from their relatives. big size and softer golden coat with orange stripes, black stripes can be seen only in some individuals at the tip of the tail. There is a version that the development of this type of coloration gradually developed in a group of tigers, one of whose representatives had a recessive golden color gene and periodically interbred with its offspring. The resulting color served as an additional camouflage for such tigers living in areas rich in clay soils. On this moment There are about 30 golden tigers in captivity.

Black Tiger

The black tiger is a rare color variation of the tiger that is not separate view or geographical subspecies. Black tigers are named because of pseudomelanosis. The black stripes of pseudomelanistic tigers are so close together that the background color is barely visible between them. For a long time black tigers were considered a myth, however, several skins have proven that pseudo-melanists exist. Melanists, unlike black tigers, are uniformly black without stripes. Tiger melanist was captured only once, now this image is lost.

Maltese (blue) tiger


Artistic representation of the Maltese tiger

The existence of the Maltese (blue) tiger has not been proven, but reports of meetings with him periodically come from the Chinese province of Fujian and Korea. Based on these reports, the tiger has bluish fur with dark gray stripes. Perhaps due to illegal hunting of tigers in China, the blue variety of tigers has become completely extinct. Around 1910, Harry Caldwell, an American missionary and big game hunter, hunted a blue tiger around Fuzhou. His search is described in Roy Champaign Andrews' book "The Blue Tiger" (1924): "The color of the beast is strikingly beautiful. The base color has a delicate Maltese hue, changing to a light gray-blue towards the bottom. The stripes stand out clearly, like a normal yellow tiger" . A later report of a Maltese tiger came from a US service member during a Korean campaign. A soldier saw a blue tiger in the mountains near the demilitarized zone. This meeting is described in Karl Shuker's book "The Mysterious Cats of the World". There have also been reports of blue tigers from Burma.

white tiger

White Bengal tigers have black and brown stripes on their white fur and blue eyes. This coloration is very rare among wild animals, but is often common in captive populations. Only one in 10,000 tigers is born. white color. The first mention of a white tiger dates back to 1951, when one of the hunters found a white tiger cub in the tigress's lair. This tiger was crossed with a female of normal color, which gave birth to 4 red tiger cubs. Then white tiger was crossed with one of his daughters, and in a litter of three tiger cubs, two turned out to be white. Thus, all white tigers in captivity are descendants of one individual. Now zoos contain about 130 white tigers.

The white Bengal tiger is not an albino. Albino tiger no black bars at all.

The white tiger is an animal listed in the Red Book. Photo and description of the white tiger

It is no secret that in our time, wildlife needs protection. But some Red Book animals, such as the white tiger, live only in zoos. This predator is not classified as a separate subspecies. He is an individual of the Bengal tiger, which has a congenital mutation. This deviation results in a white coat with black or light brown stripes. In addition, such specimens have blue or green eyes, which is completely unusual for tigers with the usual fur color.

Habitat

The Bengal white tiger is an animal that is found in the Central and North India, Burma, Bangladesh and Nepal. It should be noted that the "Bengali" most often have a red color. But if in wild nature a white tiger is born, it will be very difficult for him to survive due to the fact that with such a color he will not be able to hunt successfully, as he is too noticeable for his victims.

There is an opinion that these predators come from Siberia, and their color is camouflage in conditions snowy winter. But this is a delusion, because white tigers still appeared in India.

General information

The white tiger is an animal that is born with a frequency of one individual per 10 thousand with the usual fur color. Reports of these predators have been recorded for several decades, and they came mainly from Bengal, Assam, Bihar, but there were especially many of them from the territory of the former principality of Rewa.

The first documented sighting of a white tiger dates back to the middle of the 20th century. Then one of the hunters accidentally found the lair of the animal, where among the usual ones there was a white male tiger cub, and took it with him. This man tried to breed offspring of the same color from him, having happened to him with an ordinary female. The first attempts were unsuccessful, but after some time he still managed to get the second generation of white tigers.

More than half a century has passed since then. The population of these animals with an unusual color has increased significantly. Interestingly, all the white tigers currently kept in captivity in various zoos around the world are descendants of the same individual once found by a hunter in the jungle. It follows from this that all these representatives of the cat tribe are related to each other. There are now about 130 white tigers in captivity, of which about 100 are in India. Unfortunately, the last representative of these animals, who once lived in nature, was shot dead back in 1958.

genetic failures

As scientists have proven, the white tiger is an animal that is not an albino. This coat color can only be caused by the presence of recessive genes. This means that a real albino tiger cannot have black or brown stripes. If both parents are orange, but they carry certain genes, then the chance that they will have offspring with white fur is approximately 25%. Now let's take another case. For example, if the parents are of different colors, i.e. one of them is white and the other is orange, then the chance to get light offspring increases to 50%.

As mentioned above, albinos are also found among white tigers. These animals have plain fur without the traditional stripes. In organisms, there are practically no such individuals of the coloring pigment, therefore their eyes are red due to the blood vessels visible on them.

White tiger: description of the animal

Such individuals are very often inferior in size to their red relatives, and a slowdown in growth has been observed in them since childhood. As stated earlier, these tigers have white striped fur and blue or green color eye. Sometimes they have various birth defects due to genetic failure. These include clubfoot, poor vision and strabismus, kidney problems, and a crooked neck and spine. Nevertheless, it is not necessary to argue that because of this, the infant mortality of white tigers is too high.

These beautiful and unusual animals are considered extremely valuable specimens everywhere. And it's not just zoos. Mass culture also influenced by white tigers, such as some of the popular musical groups dedicated their songs to them.

Amur tigers

It must be said that Bengal individuals are not the only ones in which such gene mutations occur. Sometimes there are white Amur tigers with black stripes. But this happens much less frequently.

The current population of these beautiful animals includes both Bengal and Bengal-Amur hybrids. Therefore, now scientists are at a loss as to which of them originally owns this recessive white gene.

Despite the fact that from time to time there is information about white Amur tigers, their very existence in nature has not yet been documented. Many zoologists believe that this subspecies does not have such mutations. Many zoos keep Amur tigers with white fur, but they are not purebred, as they were actually obtained by crossing with Bengal tigers.

Attitude

For many centuries, the white tiger (photos of the animal are presented in this article) has been a creature shrouded in a halo of mystery. Sometimes these animals instilled fear or became objects of worship. In the Middle Ages in China, their images were applied to the gates of Taoist temples. It was believed that the white tiger is an animal capable of protecting people from various evil spirits. He personified the guardian of a certain country of the dead, and also symbolized longevity. The Chinese firmly believed that demons should be horrified by such a formidable guard, so they often decorated the graves of their relatives with sculptures in the form of this animal.

At the end of the 80s. of the last century, archaeologists, digging up graves in the province of Henan, discovered a drawing of a tiger, whose age is about 6 thousand years. It was a shell talisman lying near the body. To date, it is considered the oldest amulet depicting a white tiger.

In Kyrgyzstan, this animal was said to be able to solve almost any human problems and difficulties. To do this, the shamans, dancing a ritual dance and gradually falling into a trance, asked the tiger for help.

But in his homeland, in India, there is still one belief. It says that the person who is lucky enough to see a white tiger with his own eyes will be granted complete happiness and enlightenment. It was from this country, where he is perceived as a superbeing, but quite material, and not mythical, that he spread throughout the world.

The Bengal tiger (lat. Panthera tigris tigris or Panthera tigris bengalensis) is a subspecies of the tiger belonging to the Predatory order, the Feline family and the Panther genus. Bengal tigers are the national animal of historical Bengal or Bangladesh, as well as China and India.

Description of the Bengal tiger

A distinctive feature of the Bengal tiger is the retractable type, sharp and very long claws, as well as a well-furred tail and incredibly powerful jaws. Among other things, the predator has well-developed hearing and vision, so such animals are able to see perfectly even in complete darkness. The length of the jump of an adult tiger is 8-9 m, and the speed of movement is short distances reaches 60 km/h. Adult Bengal tigers sleep about seventeen hours a day.

Appearance

The color of the fur of the Bengal tiger varies from yellow to light orange, and the stripes on the skin are dark brown, dark chocolate or black. The belly area of ​​the animal is white, and the tail is also predominantly white, but with characteristic black rings. For the mutation of the Bengal subspecies - the white tiger, the presence of dark brown or reddish-brown stripes on a white or light background is characteristic. Absolutely white tigers are extremely rare, without the presence of stripes on the fur.

This is interesting! The record weight of a male who was killed in northern India less than a century ago was 388.7 kg. To date, this is the officially registered highest weight in natural conditions among all known tiger subspecies.

The average body length of an adult male Bengal tiger with a tail is 2.7-3.3 m or a little more, and females - 2.40-2.65 m. The maximum length of the tail is 1.1 m with a height at the withers of 90 -115 cm. Bengal tigers currently have the largest fangs of all well-known representatives cat families. Their length can exceed 80-90 mm. The average weight of an adult mature male is 223-275 kg, but the body weight of some, especially large individuals, even reaches 300-320 kg. The average weight of an adult female is 139.7-135 kg, and her maximum body weight reaches 193 kg.

Lifestyle, behavior

Such predatory animals as Bengal tigers live, mostly alone. Sometimes, for a specific purpose, they are able to gather in small groups, including a maximum of three or four individuals. Each male fiercely guards its own territory, and the roar of an angry predator can be heard even at a distance of three kilometers.

Bengal tigers are nocturnal, and during the daytime these animals prefer to gain strength and rest. A strong and agile, very fast predator, hunting at dusk or at dawn, is rarely left without prey.

This is interesting! Despite its quite impressive size, the Bengal tiger easily climbs trees and climbs branches, and also swims well and is not at all afraid of water.

The area of ​​one individual site of a predator occupies a territory within the range of 30-3000 km 2, and males specially mark the boundaries of such an area with their feces, urine and so-called "scrapes". In some cases, the area of ​​one male is partially overlapped by those of several females, which are less territorial.

Lifespan

"Bengali" prefer hot and humid climatic conditions, in which average duration life is about fifteen years. In captivity, such strong and powerful predatory animals easily live to the age of almost a quarter of a century.

white bengal tiger

Of particular interest is a small population of the white variation of the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris var. Alba), bred by foreign scientists as a decoration for zoological parks. In the wild, such individuals would not be able to hunt in the summer, so they are practically not found in vivo. Sometimes white tigers that appear in their natural habitat are individuals with an innate type of mutation. Such a rare color is explained by experts in terms of insufficient pigment content. differs from fellows with a red skin, an unusual blue coloration of the eyes.

Range, habitats

All currently known subspecies of tigers, including the Bengal tiger, have a fur color that matches all the features of their natural environment a habitat. The predatory species has become widespread in tropical jungle, mangrove swamps, savannahs, in rocky areas located up to three thousand meters above sea level.

Bengal tigers live in Pakistan and Eastern Iran, in Central and Northern India, in Nepal and Bhutan, as well as in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Predatory animals of this species are found in the vicinity of the river mouth of the Indus and Ganges, Ravi and Sutlidj. The population of such a tiger is less than 2.5 thousand individuals, with a probable risk of decline. To date, the Bengal tiger belongs to the category of numerous subspecies of the tiger, and is also completely exterminated in Afghanistan.

Bengal tiger diet

Adult Bengal tigers are able to hunt various, fairly large animals, represented by wild boars and roe deer, deer and antelopes, goats, buffaloes and gaurs, young elephants. Also, leopards, red wolves, jackals and foxes, not too large crocodiles often become the prey of such a predator.

The tiger does not refuse to feed on a variety of small vertebrates, including frogs, fish, badgers and monkeys, porcupines and snakes, birds, and insects. Tigers do not disdain all kinds of carrion at all. For one meal, an adult Bengal tiger absorbs about 35-40 kg of meat, but after such a "feast" a predatory animal can starve for about three weeks.

This is interesting! It should be noted that male Bengal tigers do not eat rabbits and fish, while females of this species, on the contrary, very willingly eat just such food.

Bengal tigers are very patient, able to watch their prey for a long time and choose the right moment for one decisive and powerful, deadly throw. The chosen victim is killed by Bengal tigers in the process of strangulation or by breaking the spine. There are also well-known cases when a predatory animal of this species attacked people. Tigers kill small prey with a bite to the neck. After killing, the prey is transferred to the safest place, where a quiet meal is held.

The white tiger is a subspecies of the Bengal tiger with a special coat color. White tigers have white or cream fur with brownish-black stripes and beautiful blue eyes. These tigers are not classified as a separate subspecies - they are also considered Bengal tigers, but with a genetic mutation. These are quite large animals weighing up to 230 kg and with a body length of up to 3 meters.

Distribution and habitats

It is very difficult to see a white tiger in natural conditions; only one tiger with such a rare coloration comes across in ten thousand individuals. In nature, these tigers were found only in a few regions of India. However, they are kept in zoos quite often.

The first white tiger was caught by man in the middle of the last century. Subsequently, other individuals with a white color were obtained from him. Now many zoos in the world contain white tigers, all of them are descendants of the tiger that was caught in the last century.

Nutrition

The white tiger, like all other tigers, is a predator. He is able to hunt big booty- wild boars, deer and other animals. In zoos, tigers are fed fresh raw meat.

Lifestyle

Usually the white tiger is active in the morning and evening, and the rest of the time he prefers to sleep or lie down in some comfortable secluded place. Usually the tiger moves slowly on the ground and does not climb trees. Only small tiger cubs can play climbing trees. The white tiger can swim and loves to swim in hot weather. He is not afraid of winter and easily tolerates low temperatures.

In captivity, tigers breed quite well. Many zoos manage to get healthy offspring of white tigers, but they do not always give birth to the same white tiger cubs. Even if both the female and the male are white, they can have red babies.

  • The contours of the stripes of each tiger are individual and never repeat, like human fingerprints.
  • The white tiger is not an albino, as it has dark stripes on its coat, and its eyes are not red.
  • Many white tigers suffer from kidney disease, poor eyesight, strabismus, clubfoot, and curvature of the spine. All these diseases appear in tigers due to genetic mutations that occur due to closely related crosses.
  • Tigers rarely roar, but if they give a voice, then it can be heard at a distance of three kilometers.
  • There are approximately 100 white tigers in Indian zoos.

White tiger brief information.

Tiger ( Panthera tigris) - a predator of the mammal class, such as chordates, predatory orders, cat families, panther genera, subfamilies big cats. It got its name from the ancient Persian word tigri, which means "sharp, fast", and from the ancient Greek word for "arrow".

The tiger is the largest and heaviest member of the cat family. Males of some tigers reach a length of 3 meters and weigh over 300 kg. Tigers are listed in the Red Book, and hunting for these animals is prohibited.

Often, defenseless domestic animals and small elephants become prey. In summer, nuts and fruits are added to the main meat menu of tigers.

Amur tigers eat red deer, wild boar, elk, and deer. Bengal tigers sometimes attack porcupines.

Indochinese tigers prey on wild boars, sambar, serow, banteng and gaur, and also attack porcupines, macaques, teleda (pork badgers), muntzhak. Malayan tigers feed on wild boars, barking deer, sambar deer, and may even attack a Malay bear.

Tigers hunt alone, using 2 main methods: they sit in ambush or carefully sneak up on the victim. Both techniques are successfully completed with rapid jumps or a jerk. One tiger jump is 5 m high and 10 m long. The tiger gnaws the throat of small animals, and large mammals knocks to the ground and gnaws through the cervical vertebrae.

If the tiger's hunt was unsuccessful, and the victim turned out to be stronger or ran away, then the tiger does not attack again. Predators eat prey while lying down, holding the meat with their paws.

tiger breeding

The breeding season for tigers is December and January. Females are ready to bear offspring at 3-4 years, males mature by 5 years. As a rule, a single male tiger courts a tigress; in conditions of increased numbers, there are fights among males for the right to possess a female.

A tigress can conceive only a few times a year, brings offspring every 2-3 years. On average, the bearing of offspring in tigers lasts 103 days.

The birth of a tigress takes place in a lair arranged in inaccessible places: rock crevices, caves, impassable thickets.

Usually 2-4 cubs, a tiger cub, are born, in rare cases there can be 6 of them. After a week, newborn cubs open their eyes, for the first month and a half they are milk-fed. At the age of 2 months, the mother and offspring leave the den.

One and a half year old tigers are quite independent, although many do not leave their mother until they are 3-5 years old.

On average, tigers live 26-30 years, during which time a tigress is able to give birth to up to 20 cubs, many of which often die in their youth.

Tigers perfectly adapt to the conditions of life in captivity and breed well. The increase in the number of offspring bred in captivity contributed to the fall in the price of predatory cats and made it possible for people, in particular Americans, to acquire a tabby predator as a pet.

  • Animals such as tigers have long been the subject of all sorts of myths and legends. For example, many people think saber-toothed tiger progenitor of modern striped predators. In fact, belonging to the cat family, ancient view considered a saber-toothed cat, not a tiger.
  • Majority wild cats They are afraid of water and, if possible, bypass water bodies. But not a tiger. This predator is an excellent swimmer, loves water and never misses an opportunity to soak up the heat in a cool lake or river.