Have you ever seen a white tiger? I’m not talking about a Siberian tiger, which are also white, I’m talking about a Bengal tiger that is white due to a genetic abnormality. It happens naturally but is so rare that there are only about 1,200 of them worldwide.
A white lion is an even more rare sight. It happens due to a similar genetic abnormality that causes them to lose pigmentation in there fur and skin. Worldwide, there are only about 300 white lions but a male white lion managed to fall in love with a female white tiger. It happened that the T.I.G.E.R. Sanctuary in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Something else that you may or may not have heard of is a liger. When a lion and a tiger breed, it is the result. Lions and tigers don’t typically come across each other in the wild for breeding purposes, it only happens in captivity. In the world, there are about 1,000 ligers and most of them are in captivity as well. The T.I.G.E.R. Sanctuary feels that they have bred the first white ligers in the world. When they get older, they may even grow whiter.
The sanctuary breeds ligers, including Hercules, the largest liger in existence. Thanks to the breeding of Ivory the white lion and Saraswati the white tiger, however, there are now four white liger cubs at the sanctuary.
The cubs are named Yeti, Odlin, Sampson, and Apolo and they are absolutely adorable. According to Dr. Andle, the founder of the T.I.G.E.R. Sanctuary, they are the first white ligers and eventually they may even be bigger than Hercules. “I skip a day seeing them and it looks like they’ve doubled in size. It’s like someone’s blowing them up with a tire pump,” he said.
Yeti seems to desire the most attention so you will probably hear about him in the future.
Watch more in this video:
