Actually, according to Siegfield and Roy’s website (of which a significant portion is devoted to their tiger and lion conservation efforts worldwide) states there actually ARE no white lions left in the wild. The only ones left exist in captivity. They have however, done much to save white lions (as well as tigers, natch) from total extinction.
I read somewhere that cats are “the perfect killing machines.” We are talking wild animals here. Ferral cats are a problem, never mind tigers.
Guess that kills my idea for a new TV Show: Tiger Eye for the Queer Guy (and that post puts me on the fast track to hell).
White lions and white tigers are not separate breeds. It’s just a recessive gene.
Sorry, I hit submit too soon. The white tiger has been preserved in captivity only through inbreeding. Keeping big critters with pretty white fur around is threatening, not helping, the continued existance of tigers in general.
In nature, white tigers arebengal tigers, not Siberian tigers. In captivity, most are bengal/Siberian hybrids. Now, I believe that Seigfried and Roy have done much to benefit tigers as a whole, and I have no doubt that they provided a healthy environment with the best of care for their charges, but white tigers are not endangered. They barely existed to begin with, and the continued inbreeding causes a lot of health problems to offset the benefits of having sparkling blue eyes.
I hope Roy pulls through, and I’m betting neither he nor Seigfried would want the cat put down; they, of all people, should realize that you cannot totally tame a wild animal, whether bred in captivity or not, and that there is always a risk when working with these animals. I’m sure Roy would be the first to say he loves these animals and the cat should not be destroyed.
a few things i have heard or read today.
on gma ms sawyer reported that as roy was being transported to hospital he did say they should not put the tiger down. his words, “don’t kill the cat.”
roy lived with his tigers in a way that many people in the animal world would not do. he is legend amoung those who work with large animals for the things he could to with them and how the animals respond to him.
in one article and one article only i read 2 words that for me completely explain what happened friday night. the article stated that the tiger went for his forearm. he hit the tiger and said,“no!” the tiger gave it another go, and…
roy stumbled
those two words tell tell the entire story. he stumbled. and in that his attention went from the cat to his balance, the cat sensed it and went for roy’s throat. roy couldn’t recover enough to get the dominance back and the tiger won.
cats, esp. big cats are always testing for dominance. one tiny little dent in the armour and bam! you are down and out.
i’m sure everyday many times a day roy is tested by his cats. this time his attention was divided and the tiger got the upper hand. being that the tiger is his, and the throat is his, it may be his decision what will happen to the big guy. i’m very sure if he is able to recover fully he will work with that tiger again. i don’t think that he will take him on stage with him.
on the white lion, they die rather quickly in the wild. they have a very difficult time hunting, which leads to starvation. also if the lion can not contribute to the pride, the pride gets rid of them rather quickly. a lion on it’s own (kimba and simba excepted) doesn’t survive for long.
geneticly the tigers in captivity have a small pool. many have genetic defects that would not allow them to live in the wild. here in philly we had a beautiful tiger that was caught very young in the wild. he was a siberian, named condor. they found out that when condor was around 2 that his teeth were having severe problems. he ended up with root canal and crowns on every tooth, his food had to be ground. he would not have lived past 2 in the wild. when he was bred to one of the females they found out his son monty had the same problem. this knocked 2 tigers out of the captive gene pool. it is too fatal a defect to pass on. condor has his 15 minutes of fame in the rocky movie, rocky proposes to adrienne with condor in the backround at the zoo.
I read that Onion article last night, and this morning it seems to be gone. Did The Onion pull it? It doesn’t seem like them, but still, the article is nowhere to be found…
It was on the news this morning that he has suffered a stroke and is now on a resperator. They are taking each second to minute to hour praying that he holds on.
PETA has shown amazing restraint (for PETA) in their faxed letters to Roy’s hospital room. IWhile I’ve never been a fan of PETA in the past, I’m actually leaning a bit on their side in this one- wild big cats aren’t meant to perform on brightly lit noisy stages. Period.
Meanwhile, as he waits for his common-law magic partner Roy to recover, Siegfried can star and direct in a one man show of The Life of Pi .
Actually, for that reason, they had stopped breeding the tigers to be white - oh, at least 3-4 years ago, I think. There’s a big sign up at the Mirage explaining the problem of inbreeding and why the tigers will eventually all be orange again.
Actually, for that reason, they had stopped breeding the tigers to be white - oh, at least 3-4 years ago, I think. There’s a big sign up at the Mirage explaining the problem of inbreeding and why the tigers will eventually all be orange again.
Is there a cite with this information available? I won’t be at the hotel anytime soon but would like to read it.
isabelle, this is the web site for siegfried and roy: www.sarmoti.com , under the animals heading you can click on the royal white tigers and you will see orange, white with stripes, and white with no stripes tigers. the white bengal tigers are mixed with orange siberians. bengals are sleek, lean cats with intense colouring, siberians are sleek, big, very big, cats, the orange on sibs. tends to be less intense.
on the site are pictures of s&r’s houses. the rooms are a bit scary… use caution. some of the tigers and lions have house priviledges.
It seems that the cat was actually trying to help him. My mother was watching Larry King-and Roy tripped, fell and the cat tried to pick him up and carry him out.
Weird.
the tiger used a bit too much pressure then.
it seems that both the tiger and roy had the same idea… get off stage.
one of the guys who was back stage said that it took a lot to get the tiger to release roy, perhaps the big guy was trying to protect roy in his own tiger way.