Rare white tigers and tiger cubs at the Chimelong Safari Park in southern China

The Chimelong Safari Park in the city of Guangzhou in southern China is home to the largest number of tigers bred in captivity in the country.

White tigers live comfortably and breed well in this area of 100,000 square feet.

Today, over 150 tigers of six different types live at the Chimelong Safari Park: the South China tiger, the golden tiger, the silver tiger, the white tiger, the Bengal tiger and the Northeast tiger.

It all began back in 1998, when Kelly the white tiger gave birth to four cubs. Thus began “the era of the white tiger” in the park, while Kelly was deemed a “heroic mom.”

The white tiger is believed to have been first discovered in the wild in 1951, when a hunter captured a male white tiger in its den and then tried, initially without success, to produce white tiger cubs by breeding it with a normal colored tiger. Eventually, a second generation of white tigers came about.

As time went on, their population significantly increased: all white tigers that live in captivity today are descendants of the tiger found in 1951 and are all related.

The last white tiger in the wild was killed in 1958, and since then wild white tigers have been considered extinct. It is possible, however, that there are still some ordinary colored tigers with the recessive white gene. Today, the only white tigers living are those bred in captivity.

White tigers are often smaller than usual Bengal tigers and frequently suffer from various genetic defects, including cross eyes, poor vision, club feet, scoliosis of the spine and kidney problems.

White tigers are not albinos. True albinos have red eyes. The chances of a white tiger being born to normally colored parents are one in 10,000.

The exact number of white tigers in the world is unknown, as some are kept privately, and not just in circuses and zoos.