Kid Territory: Critters: White Tiger
Blanca arrived in the Zoo's Children's Zoo Nursery when she was less than three months old.
Judging from those big paws, it looked like Blanca would grow up to be a big girl!
Blanca has room to roam or rest at the Wild Animal Park.
A favorite "toy" for Blanca, a hard plastic ball.
Wild Animal Park name: Blanca
Species: Bengal tiger
Location: Wild Animal Park's tiger habitat
Her story
Blanca the white tiger came to the Zoological Society of San Diego after being confiscated as a cub by the United States Customs Service—she was traveling from San Diego to Mexico in the back seat of someone's car! While her owners explained to officials that the cat was returning to a private zoo in Mexico, young Blanca (she was under three months old at the time) was romping in the back seat and peering out the car's windows.
Because special permits are required to transport tigers, the tiger cub was confiscated. However, with no facilities to keep a tiger, the Customs Service temporarily relocated the cub to the San Diego Zoo's own Children's Zoo, where she soon became a favorite of guests and employees. In March 1992, she officially became part of the Zoo family and appeared in the Zoo's Animal Chit-Chat shows.
In 1996, she moved to the Wild Animal Park where, although she's too big to play with keepers, they say she's always in "play mode." Blanca likes to wait until the keepers' backs are turned, then she runs down the hill next to them (on her side of the fence, of course). Or she may leap at the fence, showing off her full 315-pound (143-kilogram) frame. Blanca also loves playing with a giant ball, which has to be replaced often!
White tiger lore
Because Blanca is a white tiger, she isn’t part of the Zoological Society of San Diego's tiger breeding program. White tigers aren't a true species, but a mutation. Blue-eyed Blanca isn't an albino; both her parents carried a recessive gene. It's believed that all white tigers in the U.S. are descendants of a single white tiger named Maharaja, and are therefore not genetically unique.
Like the other cats at the Wild Animal Park, Blanca eats a beef-based product called carnivore diet most days. Once a week she gets a thawed rabbit, and once a week a leg of lamb. Because of her hefty weight, keepers have Blanca on a restricted diet: she gets only five pounds (2.3 kilograms) of food per day—the same amount the 90-pound (41- kilogram) cheetahs get! Of course, Blanca metabolizes the food much more slowly and has kept the same weight for a long time.
Where you can see her
Guests can spot Blanca in her spacious enclosure at the Wild Animal Park from the Tiger Overlook on the Kilimanjaro Trail.
More
Animal Bytes:
Tiger
Job Profiles: Taking
Care of Animals
San Diego Zoo:
Children's Zoo
Wild Animal Park: Kilimanjaro Trail.
