White tigers in the wild

In Rewa, hunters' diaries recorded 9 white tigers in the fifty years prior to 1960. The Journal of The Bombay Natural History Society reported 17 white tigers shot between 1907 and 1933. E.P. Gee collected accounts of 35 white tigers from the wild up to 1959, with still more uncounted from Assam where he had his tea plantation, although Assam, with its humid jungles, was considered a likelier haunt for black tigers by Gee. Some white tigers in the wild had reddish stripes, and were known as "red tigers." The Boga-bagh, or "white tiger," Tea Estate in upper Assam, was named that after two white tigers were shot there in the early 1900s. Arthur Locke writing in "The Tigers Of Trengganu" (1954) mentions white tigers.

In some regions, the animal is part of local tradition. In China, it was revered as the god of the West, Baihu (Byakko in Japan and Baek-ho in Korea), associated with autumn and metal. In South Korea, a white tiger is represented on the taegeuk emblem on the flag – the white tiger symbolising evil, opposite the green dragon for good. In Indian superstition, the white tiger was the incarnation of a Hindu deity, and anyone who killed it would die within a year. Sumatran and Javan royalty claimed descent from white tigers, and the animals were regarded as the reincarnations of royalty. In Java, the white tiger was associated with the vanished Hindu kingdoms and with ghosts and spirits. It was also the icon guardian of the seventeenth century court. White tigers with dark stripes were recorded in the wild in India during the Mughal Empire (1556–1605). A painting from 1590 of Akbar hunting near Gwalior depicts four tigers, two of which appear white. As many as 17 instances of white tigers were recorded in India between 1907 and 1933 in several separate locations: Orissa, Bilaspur, Sohagpur and Rewa. On January 22, 1939, the Prime Minister of Nepal shot a white tiger at Barda camp in Terai, Nepal. The last observed wild white tiger was shot in 1958, and the mutation is believed to be extinct in the wild. There have been rumors of white tigers in the wild in India since then, but none have been considered credible. It has been suggested from the casual way that Jim Corbett makes reference to a white tigress, which he filmed with two orange cubs, in his "Man-Eaters of Kumaon" that white tigers were nothing out of the ordinary to him. Corbett's black and white film footage is probably the only film in existence of a white tiger in the wild. It illustrates again that white tigers survived and reproduced in the wild. The film was used in a National Geographic docu-drama "Man-eaters of India", about Corbett's life, based on his 1957 book by the same title. One theory of white tigers holds that they were symptomatic of inbreeding as a consequence of over hunting and habitat loss, as tiger populations became isolated. In 1965, there was a chair upholstered with a white tiger skin in the "India collection" of Marjorie Merriweather Post, at her Hillwood estate in Washington D.C., which is now operated as a museum. A color photograph of this item appeared in the November 5, 1965 issue of Life magazine. In the October 1975 issue of National Geographic, there is a photograph of the minister of defense for the United Arab Emirates with a stuffed white tiger in his office. The actor Cesar Romero owned a white tiger skin.

An article appeared in the Miscellaneous Notes of the Journal Of The Bombay Natural History Society on November 15, 1909, which reported that a white tigress was shot in the Mulin Sub-Division Forest of the Dhenkanal State in Orissa. The report originally appeared in the Indian Forester in May 1909, and was made by Mr. Bavis Singh, Forest Officer. The ground color of the white tigress was described as pure white and the stripes as deep reddish-black. It was shot over a buffalo kill and "was in good condition not showing any signs of disease." Col. F.T. Pollock wrote in Wild Sports of Burma and Assam, "Occasionally white tigers are met with. I saw a magnificent skin of one at Edwin Wards in Wimpole Street, and Mr. Shadwall, Assistant Commissioner in Cossyah and Jynteah Hills, also has two skins quite white." Mr. Lydekker wrote in Game Animals of India (1907) about five more white tiger skins: "A white tiger was exhibited alive at Exeter Change about 1820; a second was killed in Poona about 1892; in March 1899, a white tiger was shot in Upper Assam and the skin sent to Calcutta, where a fourth specimen was received about the same time. The Maharaja of Kuch-Behar also possesses a white tiger-skin." The white tiger exhibited at Exeter Change in London in 1820 was the first white tiger in Europe.

S.H. Prater wrote in The book of Indian Animals (1948) that "White or partially white tigers are not uncommon in some of the dry open jungles of central India." It is a myth that white tigers did not thrive in the wild. India planned to reintroduce captive-bred white tigers to the wild to a special reserve near Rewa. In the wild, white tigers reproduced and bred for generations. A.A. Dunbar Brander wrote in Wild animals in central India (1923) that "White tigers occasionally occur. There is a regular breed of these animals in the neighborhood of Amarkantak at the junction of the Rewa state and the Mandla and Bilaspur districts. When I was last in Mandla in 1919, a white tigress and two three parts grown white cubs existed. In 1915, a male was trapped by the Rewa state and confined. An excellent description of the animal, by Mr. Scott of the Indian police, has been published in Vol. XXVII No. 47 of the Bombay Natural History Society's journal."

The previously mentioned article from The Journal Of The Bombay Natural History Society "Miscellaneous Notes: No. 1-A WHITE TIGER IN CAPTIVITY (with a photo)" states that "The white tiger in captivity in Rewa was caught in December 1915 in the jungles of the State near Sohagpur. He was about two years of age at the time. There were two more white tigers in Southern Rewa related to this tiger but it was believed that the mother of this animal was not white... A white tiger was killed by a Sardar in Sohargpur Tahasil, Southern Rewa, about 10 or 12 years ago. Two other tigers appeared in the beat near Shahdol and Annuppur, B.N.Ry., but His late Highness' orders were that these should not be shot. The one at Annuppur (Bhilam Dungari Jungle) was said to be the brother of the one in captivity. These white tigers roam in the neighboring British Districts of the Central Provinces and seem to be living in the Maikal ranges of mountains." There is ample evidence that white tigers survived as adults in the wild. There were reports of white tigers from Burma and the Jynteah Hills of Meghalaya made by Pollock in the 1900s. Between 1892 and 1922, white tigers were shot in Poona, Upper Assam, Orissa, Balispur, and Cooch Behar. White tigers were shot in different regions in the 1920s and 1930s. Fifteen were shot in Bihar in this same time period. Trophies are on display in the Calcutta Museum and at Mica Camp, Tisri, in Bihar. There are more records of white tigers in Rowland Ward's Records of Big Game.

Victor H. Cahalane reported white tigers in northern China in 1943: "...north China has produced a number of albinos, with the inevitable faint brown stripe. Very rare melanistic (black) tigers are known." However, white tigers are not albinos. These tigers were white individuals of the Amur tiger subspecies (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Siberian tiger. White tigers were reported in northern China and Korea. White tigers have cultural significance in both countries. They are also part of the folklore on Sumatra and Java.

Jim Corbett filmed a white tigress in the wild which had two orange cubs. This film footage was used in the 1984 National Geographic movie Man Eaters Of India, which is based on Jim Corbett's 1957 book by the same title. This is further proof that white tigers survived and reproduced in the wild. The website of the Bandhavgarh National Park, in the former princely state of Rewa, in Madhya Pradesh, features pictures of white tigers, and states "The forests of Bandhavgarh are the white tiger jungles of yesteryears." Today, there are 46 to 52 orange tigers living in Bandhavgarh, the largest population of tigers in any national park in India.