White tiger

The first white tiger cub was caught in Rewa, India and brought back to the Maharajah’s palace. He was named Mohan. He later produced a litter of ten cubs with an orange-coloured tigress. All of them were orange.

When Mohan went on to mate with a female from this litter, they produced four white cubs. This started the breeding of white tigers under human care.

All white tigers under human care today descended from Mohan. Keysa, our female white tiger came from Indonesia’s Maharani Zoo.

White tigers are not albinos or a different sub-species of tigers. Their white coat, brown stripes and blue eyes are the result of a mutated gene. Both white and orange-coloured tiger cubs can be found in the same litter.

Tigers kill by stealth, creeping up on their prey before pouncing on them. Their colour makes white tigers less efficient as predators. They have not been sighted in the wild for a long time now.

Our vets conduct routine medical checks on all animals. In the past, our tigers have had to be sedated before the vets could do their job.

These days, our keepers and our vets work to condition our tigers for health checks. This reduces stress for both our tigers and staff.

Targets are introduced along with food to focus the tigers’ attention while the necessary checks are done. The tigers are fed tasty morsels of meat by a keeper while a vet takes blood from its tail.