Story with slideshow. Picture #12 is a keeper.
Heh, they are cute.
What’s the deal with white tigers, anyway? Are they an official species, or are they an anomaly Bengal tiger? Kind of like the King Cheetah: bigger, with a less camouflaged design - just a genetic fluke, not a different species (although they DO breed them on purpose in South Africa).
Right from the yahoo story:
The tigers — which are not a separate species but white-colored Bengal tigers — are among only a few in South America and about 210 in the world, officials said. Hunted nearly to extinction in their native Asia, few white tigers now remain in the wild and most are protected in zoos.
I like picture #16 the best.
Damn. Went straight for the pics - sorry about that.
Glad to see the 210 refers to just white Bengals then. Although I suppose “normal” Bengals aren’t doing too great, either.
Man, and they seem so easy to breed in Zoo Tycoon. 
I Want One I Want One!!
Or an Ocelot!
(Damn, I sounded like a 12 year old schoolgirl there, didn’t I?)
I’m not an expert, in, well, practically everything, but from what I’ve read on the subject, Yahoo is not entirely accurate when they say that white tigers have been “hunted nearly to extinction in their native Asia.” White Bengals are exceedingly rare in the wild (only 12 have ever been reported) for two reasons: 1) the white coat and blue eyes are caused by a recessive gene, and 2) a white coat and blue eyes are not beneficial attributes for a jungle predator. All the white tigers in North American captivity are descended from one specimen, and they all exist through the magic of deliberate inbreeding.
I have no idea about the ancestry of the South American sextuplets, but the fact that the article implies that all six are white (very unlikely unless both parents are white) raises the possibility that these little guys are indeed from the shallow end of the gene pool.
Let’s just say that the tiger population as a whole would be stronger and healthier had the white ancestor never been captured, and if breeders had concentrated on good genetic matches instead of the increased price/publicity that white tigers could bring. I posted some links in a thread about the attack on Roy Horn.
That said, they are adorable, and I want to snuggle them.