More recently, a Chinese zoo visitor took to social media site Weibo to share a video of an emaciated white tiger eating soil in Wuhan Zoo in central China. Ironically, in the Year of the Tiger (2010), 11 tigers starved to death in the Shenyang Forest Zoo in China. The newscreated a huge public outcry, even as this ‘traditional healing’ practice was given a formal acceptance by no less than the World Health Organization, much to the great annoyance of animal rights activists. A South African slaughterhouse was allegedly breeding thousands of lions, who would be killed in the coming days just to supply bones for TCM ‘aphrodisiacs’ and - wait for it -jewellery, while others would get shot in fenced enclosures by wealthy trophy hunters for kicks. Last month, a Daily Mail investigation brought to light the fact that 54 lions were slaughtered in two days - mostly to fuel the Chinese medicine industry, known as 'TCM' or Traditional Chinese Medicine. White lions are not albinos, but have coloration that results from a genetic rarity. Hello Sonja! A rare white lion, born in the Szeged Zoo in #Hungary on May 15, made its first public appearance on Fri. That's what made China's sudden enthusiasm for Sonja appear so unreal. No, the shocking thing is not the use of Twitter, which is banned in the land of the dragon, but that China has a continuing history of animal abuse. These lions are no albinos but their lack of colour stems from a genetic rarity, specific to South African lions.īut while the world was chuffed, this went truly viral when the largest media house of China, People's Daily, took to Twitter to announce the news. Sonja is one of the 300 white lions left in captivity, which is why she has round-the-clock camera surveillance and is monitored on a giant screen. The cub has been named Sonja to rhyme with her mother Nadja and also as an ode to Hungarian actress Szonja Oroszlán.Ī (tiny) White Lion: Hungarian Szeged Zoo welcomed white lion cub Sonja on May 15. So, when Hungary’s Szeged Zoo showcased their rare female white lion, born on May 15, the Internet took a big gasp of wonder. There are only 13 white lions left in the wild, according to the Global White Lion Protection Trust - ironically, they aren’t even on the endangered list. But the lighter-coloured, furrier cousins of the big cats seem to be having it even worse. The white lion cub is the second birth of an endangered species in the same week: The previous Saturday, MundoPark announced an orix cimitarra had been born, a type of antelope which is now extinct in the wild and only ever found nowadays in captivity.'Tiger, tiger' may not be burning as bright. This 'distancing' is in keeping with the environment in which animals at MundoPark live – in open areas designed to be as similar as possible to their natural habitats. Staff have not been able to get close enough to Alba yet to see if the baby has any brothers or sisters, since they saw her cub appear on Sunday and have not been able to ascertain whether she was about to give birth to more in the same litter, a process which could take several hours or even days.
THE FIRST-EVER white lion outside the wild has been born in Spain, in the MundoPark nature reserve in Guillena (Sevilla province).Īnd the public can go and visit him in person after June 12, when the park reopens.Īccording to MundoPark's social media channels, the cub – who would look very much like the ones on the photograph above left – is the son of Alba and Can, two white lions brought over from Thailand four years ago.