All known white tigers are descendents of a white Bengal tiger named "Mohan," captured in 1951 in India. The white coloration is the result of a double recessive gene. The white tigers are not albinos; they have chocolate stripes and blue eyes, although several variations in eye and stripe color have been seen. White Bengal tigers are extremely rare in the wild: no sightings of white tigers have been reported in India since the capture of Mohan, and only about a dozen sightings were reported in the 50 years before that.The Bengal tiger is the only subspecies of tiger to carry the recessive gene for the white color. Mohan was first bred to a normally colored Bengal tiger, and then bred to one of his normally colored daughters. This resulted in the first white tiger cubs to be born in captivity.
Due to the extreme popularity of the beautiful white tigers among zoo guests, and because these animals tolerate captivity very well, they have been part of an aggressive breeding program. Some conservationists find this disturbing, since some subspecies of tigers hover on the verge of extinction, and the white tiger is considered an aberrant Bengal tiger, rather than a valid subspecies.
Since white tigers have been bred indiscriminately with the other subspecies of tigers, particularly the Siberian, it is assumed that most of the white tigers in captivity today are hybrids.
Many people assume that white tigers are Siberian tigers, possibly due to the assumption that their white coloring would be protective camouflage against the snowy Siberian landscape. Ironically, no white tigers have ever been reported in Russia, and their stark white color would be a decided handicap in the jungles of India.
