The Scoop
Blue Eyed Beauty
The white tiger lives in the dense jungle and mangrove swamps of India. A white tiger is actually a Bengal tiger that is white in color because of a special gene that it has inherited from its parents. The white tiger’s striking black or chocolate stripes run vertically along its body in a pattern that is unique to each tiger. Another unusual feature of a white tiger is that it has blue eyes rather than the green or yellow colored eyes of normal tiger. White tigers are not only incredibly quick and agile at running, but they are also very capable swimmers too.
The white tiger is a large and powerful animal that can weigh up between 400 and 550 lbs- or as much as six 10 year old kids together. It is as long as a small car- around 10 feet. White tigers are generally solitary animals that hunt alone, mostly at night. In the wild, tigers will eat pig, cattle and deer. They can eat as much as 40 pounds of meat at one time! After such a big meal a tiger will not eat again for several days.
The white tiger has no natural enemies- its biggest enemy is man. With forests rapidly disappearing, the prey available is also disappearing. The white tigers have also been both captured and hunted. As a result, white tigers are becoming rarer in the wild. In fact, there are only around 200 of the white tigers left in the world and these are bred in captivity. You can help the white tiger by just Saying NO to any place that exploits white tigers.
