Golden Tigers
The golden tiger (golden tabby tiger, strawberry tiger) is even rarer than the white colour morph. There are records of golden Bengal tigers in India dating back to the early 1900s (as "stripeless" tigers). In 1929, Pocock described a brown tiger with stripes only a little darker than the coat's background colour and a similar tiger ("Jasmine") has been bred by Josip Marcan. The last recorded wild golden specimens were a pair shot in 1932 at Mysore Padesh. The first captive-born confirmed golden tigers occurred in 1987. However, almost a decade earlier, in 1979, brown cubs were born to a white tigress and this was reported in the Times of India (New Delhi) of October 10th 1979. These were probably the very first captive golden tabby tigers, but were overlooked. It has been stated that a carrier of the golden gene, that was not actually golden itself, was taken from Pakistan to an American east coat zoo by Josip Marcan after its parents and littermate had died and that this is the root of the colour in western zoos.
However, modern golden tigers appear to occur alongside stripeless white tigers that trace back to white tigers Bhim and Sumita. Continued inbreeding among close relatives causes recessive genes to emerge.
The gold colour is due to a recessive mutation, probably analogous to wide-band in domestic cats. This increases the width of the pale bands on each individual hair. The normal rich orange becomes pale gold forming a red saddle pattern, the stripes are red-brown to dark brown and normally pale areas become white, giving a striking contrast between coloured and white areas. The mutation causing the colour change seems also to affect the structure of the fur so that it is softer than that of a standard orange tiger. There is none of the black colouration of an orange tiger and this lack of black striping makes their white markings unusually prominent, especially on the face. Like white tigers, golden tigers are larger than standard orange Bengal tigers. They tend to have problems with their pelvic girdles and lumbar vertebrae.
As with the white tiger, the golden tiger is usually considered a form of Bengal tiger, although most have Amur (Siberian) blood as many breeders did not keep tiger bloodlines pure. Sherikon, a female at Tigerhomes (USA) is described as a golden Siberian tiger, though her colour would have come from a Bengal ancestor. Like white tigers, golden tigers must be inbred to preserve the colour. A golden tiger is mated to a standard orange tiger, resulting in standard orange offspring that are heterozygous for the golden colour. When one of the offspring is bred back to the golden parent, some of their offspring will be golden. The genealogies suggest that the gene came from a part-Amur-part-Bengal white tiger called Tony and may have originated in the Amur tiger. Inbreeding brother and sister Bhim and Sumita resulted in both golden tigers and in stripeless white tigers which are not seen in other bloodlines. Stripeless white tigers and golden tigers occur together as both types have the "wide band" gene, however the stripeless white tigers also have the chinchilla gene that produces the white background colour (not all golden tigers descend from Bhim and Sumita, but this seems to be the most prolific bloodlin).
The first confirmed captive-bred golden
tiger (outside of Asia) was probably born at the Cincinnati Zoo (where
the first stripeless whites were born) and possibly to white tiger Bhim
and his orange sister Kamala. Ed Maruska, the zoo director, was pictured
holding a golden tiger cub. A golden tiger was acquired on loan by
Glasgow zoo after someone there saw Columbus Zoo director Jack Hanna on
TV with a golden tiger. Glasgow Zoo's golden tiger Butu (Bhutto) came
from Longleat and was from the Columbus Zoo strain. Glasgow Zoo were of
the impression that golden tigers necessarily carry white genes and are
intermediate between white and orange. The colour coded chart of Bhim
and Indira's descendents indicates that golden tabby tigers are
orange/orange carrying white with an additional recessive gene -
wide-band is the most likely candidate. Wide band would also cause
ghost-striped white tigers. For a golden tabby mated to a white to have
orange offspring means the golden tabby must be genetically orange. It
seems that Chandi does not carry the golden gene, but Kaddu does.
While the first golden tiger cub born in
captivity was in 1983 to normal orange Bengal tigers, one of the best
documented births of a golden tabby occurred with a mixed colour litter
of cubs on 23rd October 1998 at Dreamworld, Australia. The parents
where a ghost-striped white called Mohan and a normal orange tigress
called Samara. The cubs were normal orange male Sultan, white male Taj
(the first white tiger born in Australia) and two were golden tabbies:
male Rama and female Sita. The cubs were all hand-reared. This mixed
litter strengthens the hypothesis that the same gene is involved in
ghost-striped white tigers and in golden tabby tigers. Mohan would be
homozygous for the recessive wide-band gene. Samara would have to be a
carrier of that gene. Sultan only inherited one copy of the wide-band
gene and is normal orange. The golden tabbies inherited a copy from
both parents. Taj inherited white from both parents (Samara is a
carrier) and wide-band from both parents.
Josip Marcan, the Croatian tiger trainer
with the Clyde Beatty Cole Bros Circus, personally owns the performing
tigers and was previously with the Hawthorn Circus. He had previously
worked as a traioner for Cuneo. He has about 60 tigers, some leased to a
safari park in Vienna, and appears to be the main source of golden
tigers. Tigers bred by him have gone to MarineWorld/Africa USA in
Vallejo, California, which in turn has provided tigers and trainers to
Australia's DreamWorld, in the Gold Coast. Robert Baudy sent a golden
tiger named Genesis, who had a white sibling, to the Out Of Africa park
in Arizona. Genesis was born with deformed knee caps, which were
surgically corrected with moderate success. "Sara the tiger whisperer", a
trainer with the Ringling Bros, has several golden tigers in her troop.
There are apparently golden tigers at the Valley Of The Kings park in
Wisconsin and at Jungle Larry's Safari, in Naples Florida.
There are around 30 golden tigers in
captivity including those at the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros Circus (USA) and
at Dreamworld (Australia) and - oddly considering their rarity - in big
cat rescue centres (golden tiger Boris was previously the pet of boxer
Mike Tyson). When Glasgow Zoo closed, their golden tiger went to a
Spanish zoo where it produced several litters with a normal orange
tiger. The Isle of Wight Zoo at Sandown has a white tigress (Zena) and a
golden tiger male called Diamond. Diamond has been castrated to prevent
him breeding with his normal orange sister (the pair are inseparable).
The Isle of Wight zoo's big cats are rescued from closed zoos and
private collections and are not required for breeding. Longleat Safari
Park, England had a male golden tiger "Butu" (sometimes spelled
"Bhutto") and then an elderly golden tiger called Sonar who died in
2006. Olmense zoo in Bukenberg, Belgium also has a golden tabby tiger
along with white tigers, and a white lion.
Butu, Longleat Safari Park's golden tiger
that spent time at Glasgow Zoo is descended from a male white tiger
imported in the late 1980s from Columbus Zoo, USA and containing Amur
genes from Tony. This white male became resident male for the park's 6
to 9 females. Years later, in 1994, Longleat displayed a litter
(presumed imported from Columbus Zoo, USA) obtained from an orange
female heterozygous for white who had been mated to a golden tiger.
This pairing produced golden tiger Butu, two orange tigers and a white
tiger with no markings except for a few rings around the tail (exported
to Japan). Butu was hand-reared and was one of 7 or 8 examples of the
type bred by Longleat. While on loan to Glasgow Zoo, Butu was bred to
homozygous orange tigress Ayesha, resulting in cubs that carry the
golden gene. In 2000, Butu was to be sent to Spain to increase the gene
pool. Instead, he went to Germany and was paired with a white female
and with a golden female.
Although a few golden tigers have been
recorded in the wild, they are a mutation, not a separate species. It is
incorrect to say there are "only 30 golden tigers left in the world" -
far from resurrecting an extinct animal, the mutation has been specially
perpetuated as a zoo attraction. Just like white tigers or Persian
cats, golden tigers are a man-made breed produced by selective breeding.
Many conservationists believe that zoos should concentrate on pure bred
tigers not on breeding aberrant colour forms. Their striking appearance
puts them in demand for TV work and a Britney Spears pop video made
them even more popular. Golden tigers are therefor likely to end up the
same way as white tigers - descended from only a few individuals, highly
inbred and mass-produced as attractions for zoos, circuses and private
collections.
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