Whitey

Born February 25, 1992, Whitey originally had a show business career, as one of a group of cubs tagging along after their Esso (Exxon) tiger "father" in a British commercial.  He then was destined for the mall photo circuit, traveling from town to town and posing for photographs with children--a difficult and stressful life for the young cubs that are put through it. He was donated to Shambala instead, arriving in June of that year, along with his brothers, Spider and the late Dagger. Whitey was a very pale orange as a cub, leading to his name.

The tiger (panthera tigris) is the largest of the big cats. Bengal tigers (panthera tigris tigris) are smaller than the Siberian tigers. A male stands between 2 and 3 feet tall at the shoulder. They can measure 8 to 9 feet long from head to tip of tail. They can weigh from 400 to 500 pounds. The female Bengal tiger is slightly smaller. The tiger is mostly nocturnal, sleeping throughout the day. Like all subspecies of tigers, the male Bengal is solitary, shunning other males, and the female lives in family units. Bengal tigers are carnivorous, and can live over 20 years in captivity. Unlike the African lion, tigers enjoy the water, preferring to live in close proximity to streams, rivers and lakes. Their stripe patterns are as individual as a fingerprint, and the pattern goes all the way to the skin, not just on the fur. One of our vets, some years ago, after operating on one of our tigers, very proudly reported that he had successfully matched the stripes when sewing the incision!

In the wild, the Bengal tiger is found throughout the Indian subcontinent. It is believed that none are left in Pakistan, and only a small number can be found in Bangladesh. The Bengal tiger's main stronghold is Nepal and the reserves in that area may offer one of the best chances for saving this beautiful predator from extinction. India today has the largest number of tigers, with between 3,300 and 4,700 in the wild.

In 1930 it was believed that there were at least 100,000 of the eight subspecies of tiger in various parts of Asia. Probably fewer than 6,000 of these magnificent animals remain in the wild today. In the last two decades alone, the world has seen two subspecies of tigers disappear forever. By the 1950s, tigers living around the Caspian Sea were extinct. Populations of tigers that once inhabited the islands of Bali and Java are now extinct. The last Balinese tiger was killed in the 1930s; the last Javan tiger sighting occurred in 1972. The South China tiger, with at best 20 to 30 individuals, is nearly extinct in the wild, and the Siberian tigers number only 300 to 400. Much of their habitat has been destroyed by war or by government agricultural programs in the various Asian nations. Poaching is also taking its toll; both for the beautiful striped coats and for a thriving black market in tiger body parts for "medicinal" purposes.

All of us at Shambala would like to join Whitey in thanking you for your kind and generous support.