Oh right, Wikipedia is a thing.
Looking up golden tigers right now! It’s not super-clear whether this is something zoos are purposely breeding for; although it seems like all captive golden tigers can trace their lineage back to the “original” white tiger, the gene is separate from the white gene, and it doesn’t mention outright any intentional inbreeding for the gene, but it looks like it could occur when trying to breed white tigers, and there’s certainly nothing that says there aren’t any breeding programs for it.
Of course, looking at the white tiger page seems to indicate that inbreeding isn’t strictly necessary for white tigers at this point, pretty much just because there are so many of them. But there’s outcrossing going on, too.
Still, it’d be that much cooler if it wasn’t something people were breeding for on purpose. I know it brings in visitors and all, and that in turn brings in money which can help support conservation, but knowing that there ARE defects in the lines and that inbreeding can worsen them, and that most of them come from inbred lines… But it’s also good to read that some zoos are trying to add more genetic diversity without necessarily hoping for white tigers.
Anyway, I’m pretty much reading here that most of the stuff I’ve heard about white tigers is false. There isn’t a higher mortality rate, though there is still some funny stuff that’s happened from a lot of the inbreeding — but not as bad as it’s been made out to me before.
I guess it just puts me off when I hear about inbreeding for the sake of flash in any animal, which almost always seems to be the reason for it. Especially in a species that’s struggling in the wild, it seems like encouraging diversity would be the safer way to go, just to help them keep on.
#MIXED FEELINGS
