Fifty years ago today a beautiful little princessI want to thank Mary Ann Howell, whom I consider
named Mohini was born in a palace in India. She
grew up with her mother, brother, and sisters,
andwhen she became a young lady, she emigrated to
theUnited States. There she became a queen, and
startedher own dynasty. This is her story.
On October 30, 1958, a litter of four white cubs
was born to Mohan, the first white tiger to sire
cubs in captivity, and his mate Radha at the
palace of Govindgarh belonging to the Maharaja of
Rewa. The litter consisted ofa male, Raja (King),
and three females, Rani (Queen),
Mohini (Enchantress), and Sukeshi. In 1960, the
German-American billionaire John W. Kluge
purchased Mohini from the Maharajah for $10,000
as a gift for the US National Zoo. In early
December, she arrived in the United States,
staying overnight at the Bronx Zoo, and then
three nights at the Philadelphia Zoo, before
arriving at her new home at the National
Zoological Park in Washington DC.
In early January 1963, a consort named Samson was
acquired for Mohini. White tigers were no longer
being allowed out of India, so he was orange in
color, but carried the white gene. When first
introduced, Samson bit off part of Mohini's ear.
Mohini had litters in 1964, 1966, 1969, and 1970.
Her most important offspring was undoubtedly her
daughter Kesari, who was orange in color but
carried the white gene. She was the one mainly
responsible for carrying on the line of Rewa's
Mohan through Mohini.
Mohini lived at the Brookfield Zoo for two years
from 1974 to 1976 while the National Zoo demolished
the outdated Lion House and built the new
William M. Mann Memorial Facility.
Mohini died on April 2, 1979, having lived to the
ripe old age of twenty. (For any cat, living to
twenty can be compared to a person living to be a
hundred.) National Zoo Director Ted Reed said this
about her: “It’s impossible to say how much the zoo
owes that cat and her cubs. They drew attention to
the facility and made all our recent improvements so
much easier. If she had been human, she would have
been a movie star.” Mohini's skull,skin, and
skeleton are preserved in the Smithsonian's National
Museum of Natural History, but are not displayed.
They are actually in storage in a warehouse in
Maryland.
an expert on the history and lineage of the wondrous
White Tiger, so very much for this beautiful tribute on
the 50th Anniversaryof Mohini's birth and for providing
many of the pictures.
Very few animals will ever achieve the immortal
recognition and distiction of having the kind of survival
impact on their species that is given with out question
to Mohini, the Enchantress.
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9 comments:
I would like to thank our fantastic blog master for rcognizing this momentous occasion in such a grand manner. I don't know of anyone else acknowledging the 50th birthday of Mohini the Great today. Thank you so much, Wade!
Mary Ann
Very informative. Thank you.
I have been watching "The Lion Man" on the Pet Network, about Craig Busch, who has a small private zoo in New Zealand with four white tigers, an orange heterozygote, and Barbary lions. In the last episode he went to South Africa with a British lady who wants to film a TV series about "Daktari", a lady vet in Africa. He went to the Johannesburg Lion Park to get a white lion cub. They said that a white tiger cub would be traded for the male white lion cub which he chose, although they did'nt say where it would come from. He did'nt have one at the time. He has bred his heterozygote to a white tiger twice and each time got a single orange cub. Then he went to a cheetah breeding center in the hopes of acquiring a pair of king cheetahs to take back to New Zealand. His white lion cub and the king cheetahs would have been the first of each in New Zealand.
Biily,
You want to take those Pet Channel shows with a grain of salt. They are the newest in "feel good" self promotion animal shows. With rare exception you will find they tell you what you want to here.
Wade
I don't think The Lion Man was telling me anything that I wanted to hear or that made me feel good. But that white lion cub was just about the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Billy,
If you have a picture of an actual white lion, I would like to see it, and I was referencing the show in general.
Wade
I was also referencing the show in general, "The Lion Man", not Craig Busch. I don't have a picture of a white lion, but I'm sure they're all over the internet. The one Craig Busch was supposed to take back to New Zealand with him from the Lion Park was white as snow. Do you have any pictures of Oliver the upright walking chimp?
Billy,
That's the point. There are no "white lions" in existence, if you understand the genetics of color inheritance. So there isn't a picture available unless it is one of those unicorn calender artist renditions. A great, great number of lion cubs are born "looking white" the soft/fluffiness of newborn/cub fur giving the illusion to a greater degree. But like a black foal, with grey genes it's color will change as it matures, as will an offspring with creme genes.
Oliver was a sad chapter of animal training practices of old, of which I am uncomfortable addressing.
Regards,
Wade
Wade Burck I'm having difficulty following your logic here. You seem to be saying that white lions don't exist because they don't stay white. That's like saying that since all human beings eventually die there's no such thing as a living human being. It's like saying that since caterpillars turn into butterflies caterpillars don't exist, even when they are caterpillars. White lions are born as white as polar bears. They exist and they are white, so they are white lions. Therefore white lions exist.
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