White Bengal Tiger Born with no Stripes in South Africa

by Amy Judd | July 7, 2009 at 12:07 pm

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A white Bengal Tiger has been born in the Cango Wildlife Ranch near Cape Town in South Africa with no stripes, and keepers think there are less than 20 others like her in the whole world, all in captivity. Fareeda, which she has been named, is thought to be the only tiger cub of her kind living in the wild.

She is now six-months-old and was borned to two white Bengal tigers as part of a breeding programme in South Africa designed to keep the white tigers alive. They are still wild animals, but they have help to breed with each other and keep alive.

Keepers at the ranch waited six months to determine that Fareeda in fact had no stripes.

Odette Claassen, 52, from Cango Wildlife Ranch, said the keepers had to wait six months before they could be sure Fareeda definitely did not have stripes.

She said: "Some cubs develop stripes in their first few months but after six months it's clear that Fareeda is truly one of the rarest of her kind.

"When she was born Fareeda had noticeably pale colour it did cause a stir of excitement amongst the staff.

"But we knew there was the possibility of the cub's very light black and ginger stripes darkening over time existed.

"Most white Bengal tigers are bred in the US from a single male captured in the 1950s, but Fareeda is the first to be born in Africa, which is very special.