Niches Mall

Question by suiseiseki_x3@ymail.com: Are white tigers endangered, and what are it’s niches?
I’m doing a brochure for my science class and we are supposed to be doing an endangered animal and as I have researched I’ve found out that most white tigers are inbred, which is why they are white, through a specific gene.

The main thing is to tell how they became endangered, what can we do to help them, and what are it’s niche/s.

Thanks in advance for any help (:

Best answer:

Answer by No Picture
First of all, one must understand that white tigers are neither a separate species or subspecies of tiger. In contrary, they are simply Bengal tigers suffering from a genetic mutation, which causes them to have near white fur, instead of orange, with the traditional dark stripes. White tigers should not be confused with albino tigers, as they obviously aren’t the same thing – albino tigers lack the necessary pigmentation to create color, therefore, their coats look totally white (as opposed to the white coat with black stripes of the white tiger) and their eyes are either reddish or pink, while the eyes of the white tiger are blue. Normal tigers have hazel eye colors.

It is to be noted that white tigers are either very rare or completely nonexistent in the wild, and this has little to do with human interaction. Rather, there are several other reasons that conclude the fact that there are so few or no white tigers. One being the fact that only a small amount of the tiger population, which is though to consist of nearly 3,000 individuals, possesses the special gene with the ability to render the tiger’s fur white. Plus, the complimenting fact that this unique gene is recessive and both parents must contain it, makes it very unlikely for a white tiger to naturally occur in the wild. Though it is possible to happen, the chances of it surviving and making it into adulthood would be slim – its white coat with dark stripes is a give-away, which doesn’t blend in with the sorroudings, thus the tiger would be exposed to great danger as a cub, facing threats from other competitors, and as an adult, it would do extremely poorly at hunting.

Today, most white Bengal tigers are prone to zoos and captive centers in the Untited States, and are intentionally inbred to be white, for the pleasure and entertainment of the public. It is thought that white tigers in captivity and zoos may count as many as 100.

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