A white Bengal tiger cub, which was recently discovered in a raid on a villa in Istanbul’s Silivri district, has been placed in Gaziantep zoo.
The rare animal, whose ownership is banned in Turkey, will now be taken care of in a zoo in southeastern Turkey, where many smuggled animals are housed.
Gendarmerie troops and officials from a local branch of the Directorate of National Parks confiscated two animals, the tiger cub and a macaque, after visiting the house following a tipoff.
The cub was placed in the care of the national parks authority, which oversees wildlife preservation areas in the city.
The suspect was “subject to criminal proceedings,” authorities said. Ownership of such exotic animals, especially those with endangered status, is punishable with fines in the country.
White Bengal tigers cannot survive long in the wild as their distinctive color prevents them from properly camouflaging to hunt prey.
White tigers are born with a genetic mutation known as leucism, which also affects some other animals including birds, and causes a reduction in pigmentation. The conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) describes white tigers as "a genetic anomaly," with none known to exist in the wild.
There are several dozen in captivity around the world. White tigers are Bengal tigers whose parents carry a recessive gene, according to the nonprofit Wildcat Sanctuary in Minnesota, which helps and studies felines. They are not albinos or a separate species. Some parks and zoos inbreed white tigers, as the rarity draws more visitors, though this is often at the cost of malformations and other genetic problems, according to the sanctuary website.
The Asian big cats are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The WWF says about 3,900 tigers remain in the wild, "but much more work is needed to protect this species if we are to secure its future in the wild."
