Golden tabby Bengal tigers.

Captive births:

The first golden tiger cub born in captivity was in 1983 and this came from standard coloured Bengal tigers.

Probably the best documented birth of a golden tabby occurred on the 23rd October 1998 at Dreamworld Australia. Here, the Year of the Tiger was celebrated with the birth of four cubs.

Samara, an orange-coloured tigress, had been mated with a white male, Mohan. Her litter included two orange cubs, along with the first white tiger born in Australia and the first tabby-coloured tiger for that country.

The tabby was the only female; she and her brothers weighed in at around 1.5 kilograms and measured approximately 30 centimetres in length.

The cubs were removed from their mother soon after birth and were hand raised. The births and hand-raising process were filmed and presented in an hour long documentary.

Combination litters:

Births like Dreamworld's where the cubs are of differing colours are not particularly unusual.

The cubs shown below were less than three-weeks-old at the time of the photograph. All were from the same litter, but the two males, Midas and Tijar, show the golden tabby colouring. Sasha, the cub on the right, displays the typical orange coat, with dark stripes.

Golden tabby tigers in zoos:

Few zoos have ever encountered or held possession of a golden tabby and many have no knowledge of the colour. Because of this it tends to appear by accident rather than planning.

Though golden tabbies are not deliberately bred for by zoos they have joined the white tiger in becoming popular for use in stage shows and similar events.

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