Natural History

White jaguar cubs born in Germany

March 17, 2012 by SWestfall3

Photo by Steffen Schellhorn.

These unusual white jaguar cubs were born at the Aschersleben Zoo in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.

Posted in Carnivorans, wildlife | Tagged jaguar, white jaguars | 7 Comments

7 Responses

1. on March 17, 2012 at 4:59 pm Kate Williams

   A certain level of inbreeding to get to those recessives?

   
   
   • on March 17, 2012 at 5:01 pm retrieverman

     As far as I know these just appeared from a novel mutation.

     
     
2. on March 17, 2012 at 6:07 pm Francy

   Wow, thanks for the info Scottie! I’m from Sachsen-Anhalt in Germany and Ascherleben is literally around the corner. It must be a recessive gene like in white lion cubs. I watched a docu on this where they explained they carry that gene in themselves in case there is another ice age coming and the white coat makes them less visible as predators, thus more successful in the battle of survival.

   
   
   • on March 17, 2012 at 7:04 pm retrieverman

     Lions and jaguars are closely related.

     There have been hybrids of jaguar and lion born:

     http://www.bearcreeksanctuary.com/jaglions_photos_1.htm

     The European cave lion is pretty interesting. It turns out that all of these lions represented a single species that also was found in the Americas.

     https://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/what-was-the-american-lion/

     The American lion has been called a jaguar in the past. It’s now a lion.

     And in modern times, they have produced three-way hybrids between lions, leopards, and jaguars. They were called Congolese spotted lions and were brought around by traveling circuses.

     I wonder how much leopard is in some of these captive jaguars. it was a common practice in days of old to cross jaguars with leopards to produce animals that are more easily controlled. Jaguars often kill their keepers.

     There is some level of interfertility between jaguars and leopards.

     Also check out the leopon!

     https://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/leopon/

     
     
3. on March 17, 2012 at 6:52 pm The parents of the white jaguar cubs « The Retriever, Dog, & Wildlife Blog

   […] Comments « White jaguar cubs born in Germany […]

   
   
4. on March 21, 2012 at 12:16 am kittenz

   There have been reports and rumors of white jaguars in parts of Amazon South America for decades, but this is the first time I’ve seen photos that I could believe. Breathtaking!

   
   
5. on March 21, 2012 at 12:18 am kittenz

   You can bet there WILL be some inbreeding to try to get more of these as time goes by. I guess it’s just human nature to be attracted to the novelty.

   
   

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