About John Silva Expertise I can answer almost any kind of question related to Tigers, i have the knowledge to give physical, and mental data, inclusing behaviour, diet, ...
I can give specific answer about any of the subspecies as well.
Experience Tiger Specialist, I know almost everything about Tiger and I can answer any question, even if its specific from a Tiger subspecie.
Education/Credentials PUC-Rio University, Tiger Speciallist (Big cats in general)
Question QUESTION: Hello,
As you can see, i am the previous Top expert on this section of Tigers. I am Raphael Heng. I have been busy with work, hence i had to quite Allexperts.
This isn't really a question, but just to tell you, I have spent some time reading some of your past answers, and feel really disappointed.
I hope that you can spend more time researching about Tiger Conservation, be it about Wild Tigers or even Captive Tigers. Please, try to research on the International Tiger Studbook.
Note that there are no purebred Bengal Tigers outside India right now. So ALL white tigers you see in Zoos all over the world, outside India are not purebred Bengals! They are all Siberian/Bengal Integrade, descended from Tony!
And also, take note of the fact that the Bengal/Siberian Integrade project in South Africa is a fraud, as I have exposed it 2 years ago.
Lastly, take note of the terms you use. Tigers do not have mane, they have ruff hair. Bengal Tigers do have ruff hair too, the males that is. Females have much shorter ruff hair. So, there is no way to judge a subspecies based on Ruff Hair length, it is used to judge Gender.
Stripe Pattern, Proportion of tail thickness, thickness of coat(Especially Winter coat) are the key indicators. When it comes to Indochinese, remember the prominent Whiskers. All subspecies have their own unique characteristic. So, do research on them. Look at more subspecies of Tigers in real life, it will help.
Thanks.
La
ANSWER: i know tigers do not have a mane, i just said "mane" because the person that asked me said that way and i knew he was not very good with the english language.
"im not that good either"
im just trying to make people understand what i mean, with a simple and understandable language, sometimes using terms that they know and use.
They are just curious and using mane instead of ruff hair makes no difference to them since we are talking about the same thing.
About stripe pattern, tail thickness, thickness fo coat etc, i know they are different, i never told they were not... the thing is that its impossible to judge it by only seeing a picture...
thats what i said.. a person gives me a picture and asks the subspecie..
i just cant tell... every picture has a different colour, angle, size, etc... i can tell which subspecie it can be or cant be but i cant be precise.
the only thing that i didnt know was the fact that there are no purebred bengals outside india, thats something i didnt know since we have here in the zoo i work a BENGAL tiger... it came from india and its documents tell its a bengal tiger, which i believe since it looks 100% like one, but again i cant tell unless we make a DNA test or something.
White tigers are something i really dont study much, but i red in alot of places that they are bengals, that only the bengal subspecie is the one that can go white, with a few exceptions of the siberian sibspecie.
no problem, feel free to send me more.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hey there John Silva,
I was just giving you some tips and advice, chill down my friend.
The thing about Bengal Tigers is that, almost every Zoo outside India claims to have Bengal Tigers! But the fact is that according to the International studbook, which i am sure you don't have, there are no records of purebred Bengal tigers outside India.
There are a total of 210 Bengal Tigers alive today in captivity, descended from 29 wild caught founders. All maintained in Zoos of India. Zoos such as Australian Zoo, Singapore Zoo all claim to have Bengal Tigers, but are they true purebred Bengals? Nope. They are just Intergrades which might in fact have high percentage of Bengal Genes.
But the fact is that as long as they are not 100% purebred bengal tigers, they are considered Intergrades(offspring as a result of breeding of different subspecies). You see, there are many tigers out there with mixed ancestry, in many zoos and circuses. Some of them may have 60% Bengal genes, 20% Siberian Genes, 20% sumatran genes. So are they Bengal Tigers? No. Unless they are 100% purebred, or else they are considered to be just intergrades, NOT Bengal.
This is clearly illustrated from the Studbook, which contain the gene line and ancestry of ALL purebred tigers. It is part of the Captive breeding programs available in all Zoos worldwide. Do you know anything about it at all?
There are thousands and thousands of tigers out there. And of them, only around a small percentage of them are purebred. Hence, there is a need for the studbook to maintain the purity and genetic diversity of purebred Tigers, and to distinguish the difference between purebred and intergrade tigers. As mentioned earlier, every zoo will claim that their tigers are purebred, but most of them are not, unless stated in the International or in your case, the SSP studbook records.
Now shall we move on?
As for white tigers. YES! I get your point. The White gene only CAN occur in the Bengal Subspecies. I am sure you study genetics and did your research. Sure, but please, read specifically on the ancestry of white tigers today! The first white tiger found and brought into captive was Mohan. He and his own daughter(orange), Mohani, gave birth to the first litter of captive white tigers.
And guess what? All white tigers are descended from them. Yes, they are indeed purebred Bengals. However along the way, a Siberian Tiger was introduced and bred with this line of bengal tigers. Which resulted in the first white Intergrade Tiger, whom we known as Tony. Who is now responsible for all White tigers around the world(Other than India).
India has been intelligent in saving their bengal Tigers, they are not sending their purebred captive bengal tigers out of India because there are not other purebred Bengal Tigers outside India.
So those white tigers you see outside of India zoos, be it Australia Zoo, Singapore Zoo, San Francisco Zoo or whatever zoo you want to mention. They are all not purebred White Tigers. Because, simply, they are not recorded in the studbook, and are descended from Tony - A bengal/siberian intergrade. The White gene was only founded in Bengal tigers, but introduced to the Siberian/Bengal intergrades. Get it?
Siberian Tigers can never have white genes on their own. Remember this fact. NEVER. It was the bengals who introduced it to them.
All this is part of captive breeding, so you should spend more time reading more about in-situ conservation, especially on studbook records.
I am glad to know that someone has the urge to take up the responsibility of being an expert on allexperts.com. I just want to give you some advice, which might help you along the way. Everything about tigers are interlinked, and you should start with in-situ conservation.
And, please, if you don't mind. Can you tell me the name of the Zoo you work for? I will be very willing and glad to be able to pay your zoo a visit, to see a purebred captive Bengal Tiger outside India. Remember if a zoo has a purebred tiger, the zoo will get the latest annual copy of the international tiger studbook. This is the law, and this is a very serious matter as it concerns the survival of the whole subspecies.
So yea, i applaud you for your effort. And wish you luck in answering your future questions. =)
--Raphael Heng
Answer raphael, you are very rude in your text and i see you read lot of wikipedia.
Type "white tiger" at the wikipedia site and all this stuff about tony, and the other white tigers will show up on the screen, which ive red thousand times not only there. What someone asked me was about the genes of the white tigers, from which subspecies they were, and i answered BENGAL ONLY. thats it and thats right, no one asked about the history of the bengal tigers.
If the tiger here at the zoo i work for is 100% bengal, i dont know, but its documents say it, which i dont know if its true since ive never read the full thing since im not from the legal part or from the burocracy. Ive never in fact wanted to know it. Its shown to the public as a bengal tiger, thats 100% sure.
i know you are a fan of tigers and you probably know more about the history and about numbers than i know, since my point is not that... i study behaviour, physical anatomy and interspecies conflicts. Thats my specialty... my specialty is not conservation, even tho i practice it.
And i dont need to chill, you need since im quiet here answering my questions with all the knowledge i can and saving rare occasions, with 100% correct answer. I know everything? no... far from it... Do i make mistakes? yes... alot actually. It is normal? yes... everyone does..
I didnt get your point... you are just trying to show that you can add more to my questions, ehich is true.. but thats not what was asked... im just answering what people ask for... i dont need to give them the complete text block of history behind it.
Think we are done, and feel free to volunteer to the tiger's expert session if you ever want to answer again.
