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Color variation of Tiger

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A golden tiger, sometimes called a golden tabby tiger or strawberry tiger, is a tiger with a colour variation caused by a recessive gene. Like white tigers and black tigers, it is a colour form and not a separate subspecies. Known for its blonde or pale-golden color and red-brown (not black) stripes, the golden tiger coloring comes from a recessive trait referred to as "wideband" which affects the production of black during the hair growth cycle. Tiger colorations that vary from the typical orange-with-black-stripe do occur in nature, but in a very small percentage.

"The appearance of Tigers with aberrant colouration can be expected as a regular but extremely rare natural phenomenon. Only in populations where inbreeding has a longer and stronger influence, the appearance of aberrants would be more frequent."
— L. A. K. Singh

In 2014, a wild female tiger of this coloration was photographed with a camera trap in the Kaziranga National Park in India. This female of reproductive age has been photographed and monitored up through 2019.

Captive breeding lines

All golden tabby tigers seem traceable to a white tiger called Bhim, a white son of a part-white Amur tiger named Tony. Tony is considered to be a common ancestor of all white tigers in North America. Bhim was a carrier of the wide band gene and transmitted this to some of his offspring. Bhim was bred to his sister Sumita (also a carrier of the wide band gene), giving rise to stripeless white tigers (i.e. having two copies of the wide band gene). Bhim was also bred to a normal orange tigress called Kimanthi, and then to his own orange daughter Indira from that mating. The mating of Bhim and Indira resulted in striped white, stripeless white, normal orange, and golden tabby offspring indicating that both Bhim and his daughter carried the wide band gene. When the golden tabby male offspring was mated to the normal orange female offspring, both golden tabby tigers and white tigers resulted.

Litters of different colored cubs are not unusual because the white and golden tabby colours are caused by combinations of hidden recessive genes carried by the parents. White tigers, such as Dreamworld's Mohan (named after the white tiger captured in India in the 1950s), are highly inbred. Inbreeding reduces genetic variability and may cause hidden genes to manifest as there is a greater probability that two recessive genes will meet up.

Analysis of golden tiger family trees shows that golden tigers are genetically normal orange coloured tigers with the addition of a recessive modifying gene, probably the wide band gene. This same wide band gene also gives rise to stripeless white tigers. A white tiger that inherits two copies of the recessive wide band gene will be a stripeless white. A normal orange tiger that inherits two copies of the recessive wide band gene will be a golden tabby. The wide band gene is carried independently of the white gene.

Known golden tigers in captivity

Africa

Kai—a male golden tabby tiger who was raised at Jugomaro Predator Park based in Vaalwater, Limpopo, South Africa—was sadly poisoned by poachers on 25 May 2018 along with 3 lions.

Asia

A young golden tabby named as "Mish Mish" is found in Ras Al Khaimah wildlife Park, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, owned by Mr Jasem Ali.

Another young golden tabby tiger is present at Karachi Zoo , Pakistan, and is seen very active as per visitors on 1 July 2019 .

Though golden tabby tigers are not deliberately bred for by conservation-minded zoos, they have joined the white tiger in becoming popular for use in stage shows and similar events. A few private breeders are attempting to produce golden tabby tigers alongside white tigers to meet the demand.

The Lyger Animal Sanctuary owned by Mario de Santos in Pililla, Rizal, Philippines recently bred two golden tabby tigers last July 2016.

Australia

An example of a golden tiger is in Dream World in Australia. Samara, a normal orange tigress, had been mated with nearly-stripeless white male tiger, Mohan. Her litter included one normal orange cub (Sultan), the first white tiger born in Australia (Taj, also nearly stripeless), and the first two tabby-colored tigers (male Rama and female Sita) born in Australia. The cubs weighed around 1.5 kilograms and measured approximately 30 centimetres in length. They were removed from their mother soon after birth and hand raised. The births and hand-raising process were filmed and presented in an hour long documentary. Golden tabby Sita will be mated to an unrelated normal orange tiger called Kato.

Europe

Diamond, a male golden tiger, was housed at the Isle of Wight Zoo in the UK. Because he was inseparable from his normal coloured sister, who also carries the golden gene, Diamond was castrated to prevent inbreeding, although due to his sister being a heterozygous carrier for the gene, there is a chance that any offspring may express the gene in their phenotype. Diamond was euthanized in 2015 due to kidney issues. Glasgow Zoo's golden tiger, Butu, obtained from Longleat, went to Germany when Glasgow Zoo closed. Longleat in the UK previously had an elderly golden tiger named Sonar, but he died in 2006. In autumn 2010, a golden tabby tiger, Shami, was born in a zoo in ZOOPARK in Næstved, Denmark. This is the first of its kind to be born in Scandinavia, and only the third in Europe. In May 2012, two more golden tabby tigers were born at the ZOOPARK.

The Olmense Zoo in Belgium also has a golden tiger. The Tigerpark Dassow in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, also has a golden tiger.

The Serengeti Park in hodenhagen also had a golden tiger, but not much is known about it. It appears in an enclosure in Tierland on a 2003 plan, where it is labelled as "Freigelände für Weißgoldtiger" which translates to "Outdoor enclosure for white-gold tigers".

North America

The first golden tiger cub born in captivity was in 1983 and this came from standard-colored Bengal tigers, both of whom carried the recessive genes for both the golden tiger and white colours. It was born at Dr. Josip Marcan's Adriatic Animal Attractions in DeLand, Florida.

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, AR provides sanctuary for a young golden tabby tiger named "Khaleesi."

St. Augustine Wild Reserve, a big cat sanctuary in North Florida, owns a young, female golden tabby named "Sitarra."

Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey has two: A male, Kingda Ka, who has a roller coaster named after him, and his half-sister Raina. These tigers are part of the family that appears in daily educational award-winning shows about these specific tigers. T.I.G.E.R.S., which performs at King Richard's Faire in Carver, Massachusetts and elsewhere, also has golden tabby tigers.

One of T.I.G.E.R.S.'s golden tabby tigers, Ramu, is on loan to the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, North Dakota. There is a 3-month-old Golden Tabby tiger cub at T.I.G.E.R.S Preserve, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as of May 2013.

Taj, resides at the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah, WA.

Another golden tabby can be found at the Buffalo Zoo.

Topaz is a permanent resident at The Catty Shack Ranch, a wildlife sanctuary, in Jacksonville, FL.

A female named Shammi can be found at GW Zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

There are three tabby tigers found at Miami's Jungle Island.

There are four tabbies in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area – Arula, Kumari, & Kahil at Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge (Tyler, Texas)

Tyjar is at In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue Center (Wylie, Texas)

The Exotic Feline Center in Center Point, Indiana has a golden tabby tiger named Sahib.

Zoosiana (formerly Zoo of Acadiana) in Broussard, Louisiana has two golden Bengal tiger cubs named Filé and Gumbo.

There are two tabby tigers at Zootastic Park of Lake Norman in Troutman, North Carolina, as of 2019. (Jafar and Tabitha)

There are two golden tabby Bengal tiger sisters, Shiva and Kali, at Tiger World in Rockwell, North Carolina.

There was a female tabby tiger named Bala at Busch Gardens Tampa in Tampa, Florida. She is often referred to as the "redhead" of the park's tigers. She was killed in a fight with her brother, Bhutan, at the age of 13 on 30 October 2019.