White lion
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- This article is about big cats, for the band see White Lion.
The white lion is occasionally found in wildlife reserves in South Africa and is a rare color mutation of the Kruger subspecies of lion (Panthera leo krugeri). It has been perpetuated by selective breeding in zoos around the world. White lions are not a separate subspecies and they have never been common in the wild. Regarded as divine by locals, white lions first came to public attention in the 1970s in Chris McBride's book "The White Lions of Timbavati". White cubs occasionally turn up among tawny lions in the Timbavati and Kruger National Park regions. Because the gene is recessive and is masked by the normal tawny colour, white lions remain rare in the wild and only occur when two lions carrying the mutant gene are mated together. The greatest population of white lions is in zoos where they are deliberately bred for color.
White lions are not albino lions. Instead, the white color is caused by a recessive gene known as chinchilla or color inhibitor. They vary from blonde through to near white. This coloration gives white lions a distinct disadvantage in nature because they are highly visible. This gives them away to their prey and makes them an attractive target for hunters. According to Linda Tucker, in "Mystery of the White Lions - Children of the Sun God" they are bred in camps in South Africa as trophies for canned hunts.
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[edit] Breeding white lions
There is a recessive gene, the chinchilla mutation, in white lions that gives them their unusual color. A similar gene also produces white tigers. White lions can therefore be selectively bred for zoos and animal shows. Such breeding involves inbreeding of close relatives and can result in inbreeding depression (genetic defects, reduced fertility and physical defects) although this has not yet been recorded in white lions in zoos as it has in white tigers. According to Tucker, white lions in canned hunt camps have been found to have hind-limb paralysis and serious heart defects, indicating a severe level of inbreeding involved in mass-production.
[edit] Timbavati white lions
White lions were first recorded in 1928 and in the early 1940s. In 1959, a pride with 2 white cubs was seen near Tshokwane in Kruger National Park, but later vanished. Albino lions had been recorded in the area according to David Alderton's book "Wild Cats Of The World". In 1974, a light grey lion cub was born at Birmingham Zoo, Alabama.
In 1975, 2 white cubs were seen at Timbavati Private Game Reserve, adjacent to Kruger National Park. Their story is detailed by Chris McBride in his book "The White Lions of Timbavati". The two cubs, Temba (Zulu for "hope") and Tombi ("girl") had a tawny brother called Vela ('surprise'). In 1976, a white female cub called Phuma ("to be out of the ordinary") was sighted in the Timbavati pride. She was killed by hunters when 2 years old and her skin was sold in a shop in the town of Sabi. In 1977, a 2 year old blonde lion was observed in the Central District.
After Phuma was killed, Temba, Tombi and Vela (who carried the recessive white mutation) were taken to the National Zoo in Pretoria, South Africa. Temba sired several cubs and died in 1996. Tombi had a white cub in 1981, but it did not survive. Vela sired a litter, but it isn't known whether any of his lineage survive. The white lions in the Ouwehands Dierenpark (Netherlands) and a private South African Zoo appear to be from Temba, or possibly Vela, lines. A few other white or blonde cubs were born in Timbavati after temba, Tombi and Vela were removed. One female lived for several years until being killed in a territorial fight in 1993. Since then, the chinchilla ("white" or "blonde") mutation seems to have been lost in the wild.
Another white lion bloodline, possibly part of the Timbavati bloodline, comes from a white male captured in the Timbavati area in the late 1980's and kept by a private reserve.
Temba has left descendants in captivity. A heterozygous tawny lion at Pretoria Zoo carries the mutation and could pass this on to his offspring. Two heterozygous tawny males from the Cincinnati Zoo are now at a private reserve in Africa. A white female and a heterozygous tawny male were sent to the Zoological Animal Reproduction Center in Indiana, USA. A second female was unfortunately killed in a fight with the white female while on loan to a zoo.
[edit] Johannesburg Zoo strain
In 1977, Johannesburg Zoo caught a heterozygous tawny male that had a white brother. This zoo claims to be the first to have bred white lions in captivity. Timba, an injured tawny lion from Timbavati, was taken to the zoo for medical treatment. He was believed to have the white gene and was bred to a captive female and then to one of his own daughters. This produced a white lioness called Bella in 1982 who later produced many white cubs. This bloodline is represented at zoos in Philadelphia, Toronto, China, Germany and Japan.
An unrelated strain of white lions at Johannesburg's Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve was founded by an orphan or abandoned white cub called Thandile discovered in the wild in the park in 1999. Thandile has blue eyes, but is not albino. In 1998, a half-eaten white cub had been found in the Rhino and Lion Reserve.
[edit] Kruger and Umfolozi white lions
In 1979, three different litters containing white lions were recorded in Kruger National Park. In March 1979, a female lion with three white cubs was observed near Tshokwane. In September 1979, another three white cubs (from two different lionesses) was seen. In 1979 a litter of white female cubs was captured from Kruger National Park and treated for sarcoptic mange. In 1979, a white lion was observed in the Umfolozi Game Reserve in Zululand.
[edit] White lions of unknown ancestry
Four white lion cubs were born at the Papanack Park Zoo outside Ottawa, but did not remain white. A white cub was born at an African Lion Safari in Florida (date uncertain) but did not remain white.
[edit] White lions in captivity today
The New York Times index for 1980 reported the birth of three white lion cubs at King Kong Zoo in Tampa, the first outside of South Africa. Two white lionesses and two tawny heterozygous lions from Johannesburg were exhibited in the USA in 1993 at Philadelphia Zoo. Philadelphia Zoo apparently received two white lions from a German zoo, one named "Banjo". Kanya, born there in May 1994, was the result of much inbreeding back to Timba. All white lions in captivity can trace ancestry to the Timba-Bella mating.
In 1995 there were fewer than 10 white lions worldwide. That year, Sarmoti, a white female, and Shaka, a heterozygous tawny male, from Johannesburg Zoo were acquired by Siegfried and Roy. By September 1996, Siegfried and Roy had seven white lions, some of which were held at Fritz Wurm's Safari Park in Stuckenbrock in Germany. Descendants of Siegfried and Roy's white lions, bred from those held in Germany, went to Cincinnati Zoo to be exhibited as "The White Lions of Timbavati". An exhibit with the same name was also presented at the Toronto Zoo back in 1995.
White lions from the different strains were brought together by the Zoological Animal Reproduction Center to increase the genetic diversity of captive white lions and reduce inbreeding depression.
At present, all of the white lions come from the Kruger Park subspecies and have not been bred with any other lion subspecies except for Toronto Zoo's white lioness which has been bred to a generic (mongrel) male.
A white lion breeding programme has also begun at Zion Wildlife Gardens in New Zealand which has three females and one male named Gandor. The programme is very likely to be successful in producing white lion cubs.
[edit] White lion genetics
White lions are not albinos but are leucistic. They have pigment visible in the eyes (which may be the normal hazel or golden color, blue-gray or green-gray), paw pads and lips. Blue-eyed white lions exist and may be selectively bred. The leucistic trait is due to the chinchilla mutation that inhibits the deposition of pigment along the hair shaft, restricting it to the tips. The less pigment there is along the hair shaft, the paler the lion. As a result "white" lions range from blonde through to near white. The males have pale manes and tail tips instead of the usual dark tawny or black.
[edit] References
- McBride, Chris "The White Lions of Timbavati" 1977 E. Stanton. ISBN 0-949997-32-3
- McBride, Chris "Operation White Lion" 1981 St Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-58680-9
- Tucker, Linda "Mystery of the White Lions - Children of the Sun God" 2003 Npenvu Press. ISBN 0-620-31409-5
