25 July 22

International Tiger Day occurs annually on 29 July, this coming Friday. I won't be wearing a tie that day, so I'm celebrating a little early! All tigers are endangered; it's estimated that there are only about 3,500 tigers worldwide. White tigers, though, are not really something to celebrate. I've learned that the white coat is rarer than orange because it results from a recessive gene -- and that same gene causes a combination of defects. "The same gene that causes the white coat causes the optic nerve to be wired to the wrong side of the brain, thus all white tigers are cross eyed, even if their eyes look normal." And so white tigers are not a distinct species but are (defective) genetic variants. No white tigers have been found in the wild since 1958, and all the ones currently exhibited in zoos and circuses are the results of intentional inbreeding (by humans). Some are Bengal white tigers, descendants from breeding at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1974, and others are cross bred Bengal/Siberian tigers, descendants from breeding at a small zoo in South Dakota about two years later. So, although they are truly beautiful to see, white tigers represent more about humans' greed and profiteering than sincere efforts for wildlife conservation.