Longleat's group of Bengal tigers is among the
Safari Park's most popular attractions.
The group includes Chandi - a rare white female
tigress - one of less than a hundred in captivity and probably now extinct in the wild.
Despite her colouring Chandi is not an albino
and, because all of Longleat's tigers carry the white gene, it is possible for a litter at Longleat to include a mix of white,
normal or 'golden tabby' coloured cubs.
All tigers are under severe threat of extinction
with less than 5000 individuals surviving in the wild.
Most of these live in dense tropical rainforests
inside special nature reserves which were set up in India, Bangladesh, Burma and Nepal in 1973.
There are six other sub-species of tiger ranging
from the smallest, the Sumatran, to the largest, the Siberian.
In 1900 India's tiger population was estimated
at 50000. By the 1970s that number had dropped to less than 1900. Ongoing conservation programmes have raised the population
to about 4000.
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