Furry White Tigers Bred for Blue Eyes, Pink Noses, Brown-Gray Stripes

Summary: Riku, like crossbred, inbred-, jungle-loving captive white tigers worldwide, reacted self-defensively Oct. 8, 2018, to a zookeeper in Kagoshima, Japan.

one of four white tigers at Hirakawa Zoological Park: 永野琢磨 (Nagano Takuma), via Hirakawa Zoo Park Petting Zoo unofficial Facebook page July 13, 2017

A 10- to 20-year life expectancy appears as a likely actual lifespan for five-year-old Riku, one of approximately 200 captive white tigers in sanctuaries and zoos, despite fearful self-defensiveness Oct. 8, 2018.

Nobody bore witness to whatever brought Akira Furusho into one cage before Riku ("Land") bounded into the other of two cages that board the zoo-born male. The 40-year-old zookeeper counts as the only known casualty of four confined white tigers in the tiger enclosure of Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima, southern Japan.

Zoo official Takuro Nakazako explains, "We plan not to kill Riku and will continue to keep it because the bereaved family asked us to do so."

Riku, 5.91-foot- (1.8-meter-) long, 374-pound (169.64-kilogram) color variant of Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris, "Panther tiger"), fits into the Felidae (from the Latin fēlēs, "cat") family.

Female white tigers, physically and sexually mature within three years, gestate two- to three-cub liters for 103 days after generating mating-friendly loud roars and scent markings. Their 2- to 3-pound (0.91- to 1.36-kilogram), temporarily blind cubs have milk the first six to eight weeks and hunt as families the  next 16 months. White tiger cubs initiate independent hunts as 18-month-olds even though they inhabit their mother's 10- to 30-square-mile (25.89- to 77.69-square-kilometer) territories until physical and sexual maturity.

White tigers jump full-weight against jungle plant-eaters and, secondarily, meat-eaters; jab long, sharp claws and teeth into their prey's neck; and juggle 39.68-pound (18-kilogram) fresh-kill mealtimes.

Buffaloes, cattle, deer, goats, Langur monkeys, porcupines and wild boars primarily and young elephants, leopards, rhinoceroses and wolves secondarily know of white tigers as ambush predators.

White tigers live solitarily, except during mating and as cub-raisers, in prey-, tree-, water-filled coniferous, temperate and tropical rain forests; mangrove swamps; rocky outskirts; and savannahs. Physically and sexually mature three-plus-year-old male white tigers maintain 7.87- to 10.17-foot (2.4- to 3.1-meter) head-tail lengths and manage 418.88- to 573.20-pound (190- to 260-kilogram) weights. Mature females net 348.33-pound (158-kilogram) average weights; 6.89- to 8.3-foot (2.1- to 2.6-meter) head-tail lengths; and, like males, 31.49- to 43.31-inch (80- to 110-centimeter) shoulder heights.

Absence of pheomelanin pigment occasions amber-, green- or blue-eyed; pink-nosed; brown-gray-striped; white-furred white tigers, whose specimens Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) observed in 1758.

Physically and sexually mature white tigers post claw and scent marks on territorial boundary trees; prey upon fellow swimmers; and present maximum 59.65-kilometer (60-mile) hourly speeds.

All 21st-century white tigers qualify as Siberian tiger-crossbred, white tiger-inbred descendants of white-furred Mohan and orange-furred Begum, respectively captured May 27, 1951, and Feb. 26, 1952. They require one copy per parent of the rare recessive white-variant allele (genetic trait) that sometimes realizes cleft palates, club paws, crossed-eyes, Down's syndrome and scoliosis. An observer shot the last-known, wild-roaming white tiger in Bihar state, northeast India in 1958 even though white tigers theoretically show up once every 10,000 births.

White tigers thrive on fresh-killed meat, jungle smells, nightly hunts, spacious territories and swimmable rivers, all of which captivity's human-controlled schedules and noisy, smelly crowds thwart.

entrance to Kagoshima's Hirakawa Zoological Park, home to four white tigers; Monday, Oct. 11, 2010, 11:27: Sakoppi, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

one of four white tigers at Hirakawa Zoological Park: 永野琢磨 (Nagano Takuma), via Hirakawa Zoo Park Petting Zoo unofficial Facebook page July 13, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1876849315910934&set=a.1601361730126362

entrance to Kagoshima's Hirakawa Zoological Park, home to four white tigers; Monday, Oct. 11, 2010, 11:27: Sakoppi, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kagoshima_City_Hirakawa_Zoological_Park.JPG

For further information:

Ives, Mike. 9 October 2018. "Rare White Tiger kills Zookeeper in Japan." The New York Times > World > Asia.

Khalid, Waleed. "White Tiger Facts / White Tiger Habitat & Diet Facts for Kids." Animals Time.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1758. "2. Felis tigris." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 41. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/726936

Toon, Ann and Stephen B. "Tiger: Panthera tigris." In: Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 14, Mammals III: 380-381. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

"The Truth about White Tigers." The Wildcat Sanctuary, 2018.

"White Tiger Kills Zookeeper in Japan but Family Urges Mercy." British Broadcasting Corporation > BBC News > World > Asia > 9 October 2018.

"White Tiger." A-Z Animals > Animals.