Albino tiger cubs born in China zoo. But hold your applause. It's not awwww.
The wild world is going gaga over the public debut of the three rare, blue-eyed white tiger triplets that were born nearly three months ago at the Yunnan Wildlife Zoo in Kunming, China. Last year, there was this story of the “adorable” white giraffe calf in Tanzania, with its not-so-white mother.
However, before we go “awww” over it, let us understand what a white tiger, or any white wild animal in general, is. A white individual animal (unless the entire species is white in colour) is an albino, or suffers from a condition called albinism. It is a congenital disorder affecting the pigment of the skin, hair, and eyes. An enzyme involved in the production of melanin — called tyrosinase — is absent or non-functional in these animals. An individual lacking all melanin is called albino, and an individual with reduced melanin content is called leucistic or albinoid.
Although rare, albinism has been observed in almost every species on earth and in wild animals. Studies show that survival for any length of time in the predatory world of wildlife is almost impossible for the albino animal.
The congenital disorder makes an albino’s eyes extremely sensitive to light. Therefore, the ill-fated creature must live with very poor vision — if not born blind. In the wild world, survival usually requires highly developed powers of sight. As a prey, an albino is unable to spot the predator in good time to make a run for life, and if it is an albino predator that must rely on keen eyesight to locate its prey, it is at a definite disadvantage during mealtimes.
However, weak eyesight is the least of the problems for the albino individual.
Let’s look at it from the prey-predator perspective.
Naturally-coloured or pigmented animals have evolved their pigmentation to be able to blend into their environment. However, the albino finds itself in direct contrast to its surroundings most of the time (unless it is an albino polar bear).
This makes the prey very vulnerable, as the predators normally attack odd-colored prey that can be spotted easily. And if the albino predator is trying to sneak up on its lunch, the prey has already escaped before the predator’s poor eyesight even spots it.
Thus, the white predator often starves, and the albino prey is the easiest lunch for the pigmented predator.
The sun adds to the troubles of these white beauties. The albino’s skin sunburns easily, as it has no colour pigments (or melanin) to protect it from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays. (Remember here that the wild animals do not have access to sunscreen lotions).
In fact, albino alligators (nicknamed ‘ghosts of the swamp’) have an estimated survival rate of only 24 hours in the wild, due to their sensitivity to radiation and blatant inability to blend in because of their lack of camouflage coloration.
The usual daytime radiation from the sun also causes additional damage to the albino’s already light-sensitive eyes — especially without Ray Ban aviators.
However, these conditions and factors do not stop zoo-keepers and breeders from creating the “cute” albinos. Albino animals have always been a fascination for humans owing to their rarity and “beauty”. The albino animals inevitably draw crowds at the zoo, and humans are so enamoured with albino animals that in some cultures, they are regarded as sacred.
The albinos in captivity are raised carefully till sexual maturity (and beyond) and then mated. Since albinism is a recessive gene, the individuals cannot be allowed to mate with pigmented but unrelated members of the opposite sex to produce albino offspring. This causes extensive inbreeding, and even more extensive genetic damage to the resultant offspring.
But when have such trivial factors ever stopped humans?
Two excellent examples are that of the Yunnan Wildlife Zoo in China breeding (or inbreeding) albino tigers, and Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka that specialises in breeding albino snakes. The Yunnan Wildlife Zoo in Kunming, China, is home to 41 albino tigers. The Dehiwala Zoo in fact gifted a white king cobra called Goya to Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in Chennai back in 2008.
While we go awww over these cute little triplet albino tigers, we need to pause for a moment and ponder whether our want for cuteness is worth messing with nature and creating aberrations.
Also read: Wildlife Week 2018: Why India could not have had a worse week