Al Ain: Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort (AWPR) inaugurated its new white tiger exhibit during an official opening ceremony, attended by members of the ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, AWPR Board Members and senior management team as well as other officials.
As part of the ceremony, the senior management of AWPR extended its sincere thanks and gratitude to Shaikha Latifa Bint Rashid Bin Khalifa Bin Saeed Al Maktoum for her generous donation of two white tigers, the almost two-year old siblings (a female and a male) that were named Sugar and Spice by Shaikha Latifa when they were three-months old cubs.
Shaikha Latifa said: "After long consideration, I decided to donate Sugar and Spice to the Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort as I know they will take good care of them. The zoo has a great reputation for their spacious enclosures and world-class care for the animals. I am very excited to see the tigers now on exhibit and exploring their new home in the zoo's cat house."
White tigers are a colour morph of the tiger, caused by the recessive gene ‘chinchilla albinistic'. Contrary to popular belief, they are not albinos. White tigers are distinct because of their white coat and blue eyes. Records of the white tiger date back to the early 19th century.
Farshid Mehrdadfar, manager of the Animal Collection department at AWPR said: "For the first time, white tigers will be on public display in the UAE and we are excited about the debut at our zoo, which has one of the largest collections of big cats worldwide. We worked very closely with Shaikha Latifa's team to make the relocation of the precious tigers from Dubai to Al Ain as smooth as possible."
