[FEL-L] 3 reasons why the White tigers are not managed in the AZA's Tiger Species Survival Plan [TSSP]

[Brian Werner]

Did you all know that their are _three reasons_ why the white tigers are 
not managed in the AZA's Tiger Species Survival Plan [TSSP] here in 
North America?

It is NOT because these white tigers are inbred like the AR Group's tend 
to promote.

1. The main reason is that the Bengal tiger is managed in India and may 
be managed by Europe but not in American Zoos.

2. The other reasons are the Geo-political tracing [ancestor's] of 
captive tigers to the wild cannot be confirmed. There is no way to do so 
without formal genetic testing. And formalized genetic testing is not 
being utilized to its fullest potential within the AZA's breeding program.

3. And the last reason is that they do not see color as a applied 
managing technique.

None of this had or has anything to do with inbreeding, in fact the 
AZA's own program managers [TSSP] at the time when the program was 
implemented [1982 to 1983] assumed that all founder stock were unrelated 
in all of its tiger breeding programs. In other words AZA made the 
generalized assumption that its breeding stock (founders) were all 
unrelated even if they were not.

Another interesting note with the AZA's TSSP is that they could not 
trace most of their tiger's to the wild either, they again assumed that 
they had what they call "fair representation" when starting.

Further note that contrary to the current political and social 
implications it does not mean that color may not be important, 
scientific evidence does point otherwise. Contrary to popular 
subcultural hearsay mankind did not invent white tigers, they were a 
natural occurrence in the wild [The Deer & The Tiger Geo Schaller]. 
Fossil evidence suggests that tigers evolved in Siberia, migrating to 
the tropical lands of southern Asia and the Indian subcontinent, passing 
north of the Tibetan plateau to the Caspian region and eastern Turkey. 
Over the past 100 years only about a dozen white tigers have been 
reported in India in the wild, and interestingly only in the Bengal 
subspecies, this suggests that the mutation occurs in only one out of 
every 10,000 wild births. With fewer than 2,500 wild tigers remaining in 
India it is no wonder that no recent spotting's of white tigers exist 
over the past 15 to 20 years.

On the other hand those in a hurry to mass produce white tigers should 
hold off until a formal management program can be introduced. The white 
tiger population in today traces its ancestry to a single white male 
named mohan, collected in 1951. Successive inbreeding in captive 
populations for the variation has resulted in the approximately 300 or 
so white tigers in existence today. The inherent genetic problems 
associated with the required father/daughter/granddaughter pairings, 
resulting in the white tiger lineage, often manifests itself in other 
abnormalities including crossed eyes, bone deformations and reduced 
immune system functions. These factors have created a controversy among 
zoos, animal rights groups and those facilities who chose to breed and 
display the white tigers. At the root of the problem is the fact that 
white tigers are a popular exhibit, helping increase attendance and 
revenues at zoos and animal parks, while on the other hand their 
breeding allegedly serves no conservation purpose. Another note is that 
the same deformities would, could and will be found in any tiger that is 
line bred to closely. Out crossing management would protect against 
theses isolated factors associated with inbreeding but only if done 
properly!

Here is some more interesting reading with pictures, see: 
http://www.lairweb.org.nz/tiger/rewa.html

Brian Werner
Tiger Link

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See this information: 
http://www.felidtag.org/pages/educational/factsheets/tiger.htm

White tigers are not managed by the SSP for the following reasons:

·        No white tigers in zoos and circuses worldwide can be traced 
back to the wild.

·        The management of Indian or Bengal tigers, the only subspecies 
in which white tigers have appeared in nature, is the responsibility of 
the Indian Zoo Association and if necessary, the European tiger 
conservation program (EEP).

·        The American conservation program for managing tigers (SSP) is 
based upon maximizing genetic diversity and as such, selective breeding 
for any extremely rare allele such as white coloration is not appropriate.