BURLINGTON, N.C. (WGHP) —The Animal Park at the Conservators Center is welcoming its newest resident, a white tiger.
Indra is a 3-year-old female leucistic tiger with white fur and pale blue eyes.
Leucistic tigers, better known as white tigers, get their white fur due to a rare mutation known as leucism, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Leucism only occurs in 1 in every 10,000 tigers in the wild.
Indra comes to the Conservators Center by way of Florida. Her companion in Florida passed away and she began displaying signs of anxiety.
Staff thought that a change of scenery would do good for Indra and now she’s a Tar Heel.
Estimates report that there are fewer than 5,000 tigers left in the wild, which means that people are likely to never see a wild white tiger.
Leucism is often mistaken as albinism, which is an even rarer condition that entails having no pigment whatsoever.
