What is a White Tiger?

A white tiger is a Bengal tiger born with a rare genetic mutation that turns its orange fur white while leaving its dark stripes in place. It is not a separate species or subspecies, and it is not an albino. White tigers were once seen now and then in the wild in India, but the last known wild one died in 1958, and today they live only in captivity. Most of them descend from a single male named Mohan, which is why their story is as much about inbreeding and zoo business as it is about beauty. Here at Tiger-Universe, this is the short guide we wish more zoo visitors had read.

What makes a white tiger white

The white coat comes from a recessive gene. A cub is white only when it inherits a copy of the mutation from both parents, which is why two orange tigers that both carry the gene can have a white cub, and why white cubs were so rare in the wild. In 2013, researchers traced the color to a change in a single pigment gene, SLC45A2, which blocks the red and yellow pigment while leaving the black one.

That last detail answers a common question. A true albino has no pigment at all, but a white tiger keeps its black or brown stripes, along with dark pigment around the eyes, which are usually blue. And the white coat did not evolve as camouflage for snow. The Bengal tiger lives in the forests and grasslands of the Indian subcontinent, far from any snow.

Where white tigers live today and what they eat

White tigers now live only in zoos and wildlife parks. Estimates range from about 200 to several hundred worldwide, about 100 of them in India. They draw large crowds, and that fame has earned them the name "royal white tigers."

A white tiger eats exactly what any tiger eats: meat. In the wild, Bengal tigers favor deer such as chital and sambar, and some reserves try to keep those habits. Zoos feed their white tigers chicken, beef or goat depending on the region. In the early 2010s, India's tiger authority refused a request from the state of Madhya Pradesh to release white tigers into the wild. White tigers did once survive to adulthood in the wild, so their coat alone did not stop them from hunting, but captive-bred animals with fragile health would face prey that is now scarcer and warier than it was a century ago.

From the forests of India to Mohan

The recorded history of the white tiger begins in 16th century India, with written accounts of a tiger-like animal with a white coat. A painting from the early 1600s shows two of them. Sightings continued across the region until the 1900s, which means the mutation survived in wild tigers for nearly 400 years.

Then the numbers fell. Uncontrolled trophy hunting, habitat loss and the breaking up of forests, the same forces that reduced wild tigers in general, likely wiped out the white ones. In 1951 a white male cub was captured in the forests of Rewa, and the last wild white tiger known was killed in 1958.

The captured cub was Mohan, and he became the most famous white tiger in history. His owner, the Maharaja of Rewa, wanted white offspring. Mohan's litters with an orange tigress produced only orange cubs, because those cubs carried just one copy of the gene. So Mohan was bred with one of his own orange daughters, Radha, and in 1958 she gave birth to the first white cubs born in captivity. Many of the white tigers alive today are his direct or indirect descendants. White tigers also hold a separate place in Asian legend, where the White Tiger guards the West, a story told in our article on white tiger mythology.

The health cost of breeding white tigers

Because the white coat needs two copies of a rare gene, the fastest way to produce it is to breed related tigers again and again. Most of the few hundred white tigers on Earth descend from Mohan, and outside India some captive white tigers were also crossed with Siberian tigers, the largest tiger subspecies, mixing lineages that would never meet in the wild.

The results are hard on the animals. The inbreeding has left the lineage so poor in genetic variety that infant mortality reaches 80 percent. Many survivors suffer from health problems such as physical deformities like Kenny's or vision disorders such as strabismus, a crossed-eyed look. Since the white tiger is not a species, it is not threatened with extinction as such, but this captive lineage is headed for a dead end if breeding continues the same way.

Why zoos keep breeding them

Many people believe that saving the white tiger matters for the planet. Biologically, it does not: a white tiger is a Bengal tiger with a different coat, and breeding more of them adds nothing to the survival of wild tigers. The reason they keep appearing in enclosures is money. A white tiger draws visitors, and zoos around the world have paid high prices for them for more than 60 years, often presenting them as a rare species in need of rescue.

The kindest path is to give the white tigers alive today the best possible care while stopping the breeding that produces sick and short-lived cubs. Admire the color, and let the real conservation effort go to wild orange tigers and the forests they live in.

Enjoying the white tiger without the zoo

There are gentler ways to keep a white tiger close. Our tiger canvas wall art includes a white tiger climbing through crimson leaves, the tiger figurine collection has white tigers with brown or black stripes, and a soft tiger plush keeps the stripes without the bite. Our backpacks carry white tigers too, and so do many of our tiger t-shirts.

Prefer your tigers on cotton? Our tiger t-shirt collection, from small chest prints to all-over designs.