Stunning. Beautiful, the stuff of fantasies and fairy tales. These are all valid descriptions of the magical white tiger. There is no doubt that these impressive snowy creatures with ice-blue eyes arrest the attention of countless admirers. Their charm is such that few people ever question just what a white tiger really is.
Studies done at the Nantional Instatude of Health and Texas A&M have shown that, in general, the white tigers of today are genecily diverse and healthy.
Biologically speaking, the white color is caused by the expression of a rare recessive gene which occurs almost exclusively among bengal tigers, as opposed to other subspecies. White tigers are therefore not a distinct subspecies, but a color variation from the standard orange bengal tiger. Nor are they albinos: they have pigmentation in their eyes as well as in their stripes.
The era of the white tiger began in 1951 when a white tiger by the name of Mohan was taken from the wild. He was bred to an orange female tiger and only orange cubs were produced. The recessive leucistic gene needs to be passed down from both parents to display the recessive gene trait. In 1958 the first white tiger cubs were produced when Mohan was bred to one of his female offspring.
Mohini, a white tigress was the first to come to the USA in 1960. She was sent to the National Zoo in Washington DC. In 1963 Ralph S. Scott acquired an orange male tiger that was a half brother of Mohini and brother to Mohini’s mother. He was a donation from the Prime Minister of India. His name was Uncle Samson and was sent to the National Zoo to pair with Mohini. On January 6, 1964, Mohini gave birth to three cubs, one white and two orange. Two of those cubs, Ramana and his orange sister Kesari, were sent to the Cincinnati Zoo.
In June of 1974 Ramana and Kesari produced a litter of 3 white cubs and one orange. Those cats were sold to the International Animal Exchange or went to other zoos. This practice of breeding sister to brother, mother to son, or father daughter continued for years. Zoos were desperate to get white tigers. Somewhere, in the excitement of breeding an Amur tiger was introduced to the mix.
Some of this information is a bit confusing as the picture is not always very clear. The bottom line is, zoos would breed any combination of tigers to produce more white tigers. It is a sad commentary of what the zoos did in those days. These were the prominent zoos. The National Zoo, and Cincinnati Zoo were the major players at the start but other zoos followed in the terrible practice of inbreeding.
As of 2025, things have changed. Time has a way of rectifying the situation. Preliminary data from DNA tracking of generic tigers is showing white tigers and orange tigers mean kinship numbers are close to each other. This means that enough orange tigers that carry the white recessive gene have been mixed into the white tiger line that the inbreeding coefficient is not as bad as it used to be.
The American Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)have decided to move away from having white tigers in their zoos. It is interesting that AZA zoos started the inbreeding but are now they are moving away from white tigers alltogether even though inbreeding is a thing of the past. White tigers today are as genetically diverse as orange tigers. People love to see white tigers still to this day. Many of the so-called “Sanctuaries” still use the inbreeding narrative to say why private facilities are bad because that is where most of white tigers are being produced.
The Cat Haven staff was never excited about getting a white tiger. Believing the hyperbole of the past, having a white tiger did not fit the message of the organization. Obviously things have changed and the decision of getting a white tiger was weighed carefully. In 2013 an opportunity was presented to the Cat Haven to acquire a white tiger cub. Dianna came to us at 3 months of age and has been a favorite of visitors since her arrival. She has no defects as is the case with white tigers born these days.
Studies of the Nantional Instatude of Health and Texas A&M have shown that the white tigers of today are genecily diverse and healthy.
As with many things about wildlife, the facts change as we gather more information. Question what is written here! Keep learning and don’t give up on the quest for the truth.