CUTENESS ALERT!
Three female Bengal tiger cubs surprised their keepers at a Zoo in Germany on July 15, 2004! Nor only were they a surprise but they arrived in three different colors! Gold, white and brown fur adorns their adorable little bodies in this picture on 9-4-2004. Their parents are both the normal redish brown but both parents carry the recessive gene for white and the gold cub’s furresults from a mixture of the brown and white.
I titled this cuteness alert but from my work as a zoo docent I can tell you that cuteness is a very adaptive state in all adult animals (human too!) which triggers a nurturing and protestive response from adults. The mother of these can’t resist them either which, of course, will provide them with the care and guidance they need to grow up strong and capable. In the wild mother will teach them how, where and what to hunt. Father will not have on ongoing relationship with the mother or the cubs. White tigers are born as a result of the recessive gene I mentioned, kind of like red hair in human but much more rare. White tigers are just as strong and healthy and often bigger than their brown counterparts. 