Three adorable newborn white Bengal tiger cubs in the capital of Henan Province, central China, are attracting waves of tourists.
The triplets were born on June 22, 2024, to a white Bengal tiger. Although most Bengal tigers have orange fur, the three cubs' white color is due to a lack of a pigment called pheomelanin. Both parents must carry a kind of unusual gene to produce the white Bengal tigers. If they carry the double recessive allele in their genetic code, the chance of giving birth to a white Bengal tiger is one in 100,000.
"The triplets were born on June 22, this year. They are not yet completely weaned from artificial feeding and are living in an incubator. Currently, the cubs are in the conservation period, and we want to show tourists how we take care of the triplets,”said Xu Fu, manager at the Department of Management at Enjoyland Animal Kingdom in Zhengzhou City.
According to a breeder, the high temperatures in summer could affect the baby tigers' eating and resting habits. So keeping them in an incubator with the temperature set at 26 degrees Celsius is beneficial for their health. When the cubs were born, they could only drink milk, but now they can eat some meat as their teeth have grown.
"The triplets eat four times a day. Meat is their staple food during the day, with 80 grams of meat consumed daily, while they drink about 90 milliliters of milk at night,” said He Huili, an animal nursery worker at the Enjoyland Animal Kingdom.
Additionally, the feeder will take them outdoors for one to two hours every day to help them adapt to the outside environment.
Three newborn white Bengal tiger cubs attract tourists in Chinese zoo
