Dec

Today in Smithsonian History: December 4, 1960

Mohini Rewa, the National Zoo’s white tiger, in her enclosure in the Lion House, as featured in the Torch, May/June 1973.

December 4, 1960 The white tigress, Mohini of Rewa, arrives at the National Zoological Park. This ice-blue eyed animal is the gift of the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation of New York and Ralph Scott of Washington, D.C. Mohini is formally presented to President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the White House lawn by John Kluge, president of the Board of the MBC.

White tigers are a pigmentation variant of the Bengal tiger, which is reported in the wild occasionally in the Indian states of Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Sunderbans and especially in the former State of Rewa.

The white fur caused by a lack of the pigment pheomelanin, which is found in Bengal tigers with orange color fur. White Bengal tigers tend to grow faster and heavier than the orange Bengal tiger. They also tend to be somewhat bigger at birth, and as fully grown adults. As with all tigers, the white Bengal tiger’s stripes are like fingerprints, with no two tigers having the same pattern. The stripes of the tiger are a pigmentation of the skin; if an individual were to be shaved, its distinctive coat pattern would still be visible

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives