Tiger

[The Barbarian]

 

[o hey tyler]

Yes it is.

 

[Bynx]

How about something useful Barbarian, like, well done.

 

[The Barbarian]

Always nice to hear it from someone who knows how to do HDR well.

 

[rojam1000]

well pp and shot

 

[zombiemann]

Um, wow... holy crap... DUDE!!!

yea, I think that covers it. I might be slightly prejudiced though. I am a HUGE tiger fanatic. Love the shot, love the subject. Well done

P.S. Gotta ask... is that a minion from Despicable Me in your avatar?

 

[bs0604]

very nice

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Almost looks like a painting. Not a huge fan of HDR with animals/people. It kind of works here. I don't see enough DR here to warrant HDR with the DR capturing capability of modern DSLR sensors.

 

[The Barbarian]

yea, I think that covers it. I might be slightly prejudiced though. I am a HUGE tiger fanatic. Love the shot, love the subject. Well done

P.S. Gotta ask... is that a minion from Despicable Me in your avatar?

Thanks. No, the avatar is just a really modified smiley. I like it.

You like white tigers?

 

[zombiemann]

While I do find white tigers beautiful, I am dead set against propagating the myth that breeding them is anything other than harmful. A white tiger can only be achieved through inbreeding. It is a genetic defect that does not occur in nature. For every white you see on display there are countless others born who are deformed or with so many health problems that display is not an option. My own personal view is that the existing white tigers should be allowed to live out their full lives, but no more should be bred. They are not a species of their own, contrary to popular belief, and as such there is no such thing as "extinction" for white tigers.

Many tiger/big cat outfits operate under the guise of "conservation", when in all reality they are commercial operations. Especially outfits that have "pay to play" exhibits where for a nominal fee you can enter an enclosure and spend time with baby tiger cubs. What they neglect to mention is those cubs have been removed from their mothers far to early, and as such their immune system is compromised. There are 2 ends for a cat in that situation. It will either be forced to live out its days in a space approximately the size of two standard parking spaces, or it will be killed. A good litmus test is this: if there is physical human contact with the animals, it is not a conservation effort. True conservation maintains the animals natural instincts as much as possible. A tiger bred in captivity and raised with daily contact can never be released into the wild, and often end up turning on their owner. When they turn one death I mourn, the other I do not. The tiger pretty well always gets put down, this saddens me greatly. The idiot who got into the enclosure with a 500lb killing machine because they thought it was safe gets no sympathy from me. Big cats can not be domesticated, plain and simple.

Sorry, I kind of got off on a rant there. Like I said, I am a fanatic, to the point of almost being evangelical about it lol.

All that aside, the photograph of the white tiger is absolutely fantastic.

Here is a link to a wonderful conservation organization that really does everything they can to help out cats in need. The article is specifically about white tigers but they have many other wonderful articles and videos as well
http://bigcatrescue.org/abuse-issues/issues/white-tigers

 

[The Barbarian]

The white phase is something that happens periodically in the wild. It seems that tigers evolved in cold climates, and it was perhaps adaptive at one time. But as you say, white tigers are no more a species or subspecies than black leopards are. They are merely an occasional color variation.

The extreme inbreeding necessary to fix the mutation in a population has had some health consequences for many of these tigers. I agree that they should not be bred as a new variety of tiger.

 

[The Barbarian]

The white phase is something that happens periodically in the wild. It seems that tigers evolved in cold climates, and it was perhaps adaptive at one time. But as you say, white tigers are no more a species or subspecies than black leopards are. They are merely an occasional color variation. The problem is that white tigers lack the coloration they need for stealth as ambush predators. So most white ones aren't very successful in the wild.

The extreme inbreeding necessary to fix the mutation in a population has had some health consequences for many of these tigers. I agree that they should not be bred as a new variety of tiger.

 

[Steve5D]

It is a genetic defect that does not occur in nature.

I'm far from a zealot on the issue, but it would appear as though your statement is incorrect. It's not common at all, but it's also not unheard of.:

Rewa Maharaja Martand Singh first observed male white tiger Mohan during his visit to Govindgarh jungle at Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India. After hunting for months, he was able to capture the first living white tiger seen in nature.

White tiger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Excellent shots, by the way...