4 white Bengal Tiger Cubs Born at Traveling Zoo Die

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070706/D8Q78RKG0.html

4 Tiger Cubs Born at Traveling Zoo Die
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Jul 6, 2:44 PM (ET)

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - All four white Bengal tiger cubs born this week at a traveling zoo exhibit died within a few hours of one another, a zoo official said. A cause of death was not immediately released.

The cubs were born Tuesday to Gita and Splash, two royal white Bengal tigers on display at the Zoo Dynamics exhibit at the Mighty Thomas Carnival, which is traveling through Duluth. Marcus Cook, senior animal care specialist with Zoo Dynamics, said the young tigers all died between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Cook said the cubs did not die as a result of care or zoo conditions, and added that they had been nursing. A veterinarian from the Lake Superior Zoo had examined the cubs Thursday morning but could not pinpoint a cause of death.

"It could be a million things that happened, even before conception," Cook said.

The cubs' small bodies, each weighing less than three pounds, will be shipped to a laboratory for examination, Cook said.

Some animal-rights groups disapprove of breeding white tigers, claiming they must be inbred to recreate the rare white coloring. Cook said the cubs were "clean," five generations back.

FULL story at link.

[flvegan]

1. Traveling zoo. 'Nuff said.

[Nikia]

2. Maybe they should have taken both animals off display

During the pregnancy of the female tiger, especially towards the end.

[LeftyMom]

3. White tigers are all one inbred family

Nearly all the captive ones are descended from one male whose female offspring were mated to him or to his (normal looking but carriers for the white recessive) brothers. Every last one of them is inbred, and they tend to be very sickly with high rates of congenital defects (probably what happened here,) crossed eyes and visual difficulties, breeding difficulties and heart problems. They also tend to be abnormally large. They're almost all effectively retarded, the brightest specimens are still dumb as a box of rocks by typical tiger standards, and they have a reputation for being less managable in captivity than normal tigers.

The thing is that there are reports of white tigers in the wild from time to time, and they pop up in captivity in animals unrelated to the known line of white tigers, although not often. It's really not that rare a defect apparently, but it is a defect as it ruins the ability to hide in the wild. The other problems come with the breeding back to the same line needed to keep the recessive expressing itself.