2 lions kill rare white tiger in Czech zoo

2 lions kill white tiger in Czech zoo

PRAGUE (AP) — A rare white tiger was killed by two lions that managed to sneak into its enclosure in a Czech zoo, officials said Thursday.
The lions, 14-year-old Sultan and 11-year-old Elsa, entered the open-air area occupied by the 17-year-old tiger Isabella by opening a trap door, Liberec Zoo spokesman Ivan Langr said.

He said it happened too quickly for authorities to prevent the Thursday morning death. The two lions have been in the zoo since 2001.

The lions and tigers share the same pavilion overnight, which they leave for separate open-air areas during the day. The animals are allowed to enter various areas on a rotating daily basis and the lions likely were trying to enter the place where they spent the previous day, Langr said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-11-19-Czech-Republic_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

They are also highly inbred and genetically unfit.

White tigers have no right to live and should be shot on sight! :sarcasm:

They are inbred for their value as "White Tigers!"

Thing is, so many are born with birth defects or "failure to be white", that they get tossed out as trash.

I was addressing the cavalier attitude toward the death of a beautiful animal - genetic inferiority & non-rarity notwithstanding. I had an issue with the 'affect' of the post rather than it's accuracy. It impressed me as emotionally flat & dismissive.

that most of us consider to be a wonder to gaze upon in a confined area

Furthermore, there has been a lot of amature breeding, so that outcrossing and backcrossing has been done with multiple sub species. Therefore they have no value in terms of preserving the tiger gene pool.

Because the genetic abnormality is linked to optic nerve formation....

http://www.bigcatrescue.org/cats/wild/white_tigers.htm
The myth of the Rare White Bengal Tiger was an illusion meant to deceive the public into thinking that these cats were endangered and being preserved for future generations. The truth of the matter is that they aren’t even pure Bengal tigers, but rather are all the offspring of an original Siberian / Bengal cross breeding. The inbreeding results in many defects, early deaths, still births and, as could be expected, the cats are not very bright which is why they are preferred for entertainment purposes

He appears to be human. Humans deal with a wide variation of traits much diiferently than many wild animals do.

For example, humans do not depend on natural coloration of fur camoflauge to help them stalk prey. Humans tend to use intelligence to suitably adapt their own environment such as building shelters and using technology. Wild tigers tend not to use technology in this manner.

This is why white tigers do not do well in the wild, and primarily are perpetuated by the active intervention of humans, for the amusement of humans.

It is unlikely that Mr. Christie was bred for entertainment purposes.

...because he certainly is not entertaining. :evilgrin:

:shrug:

Tigers can't hold their own against lions?

That's news to me...

:shrug:

Tigers are larger than lions.

Interestingly, the offspring of a tiger-lion breeding is called a LIGER, and it is larger than a tiger. It is a huge, huge animal.

This tiger was 17, a little older than the lions.

There are some tiger-lion fights on video, and some can be found on youtube. Any time predators fight in the wild, it's fascinating to see how they do it.

Too bad for the tiger, this time.

I've seen full-grown Bengal and Siberian tigers that were not bigger than a full-grown male African lion.

Tigers are typically much larger than lions.

Two cats enter - one cat leaves!

An amazing 8 minutes of video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

And the never ending battle between lions and hyenas presents some fascinating battles, one of which the lion wins here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmQX09rX0

Watching these animals in their native environment doing what they do to survive is intriguing.