A treasured snow tiger was born on October 1 in a zoo in the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, adding a long-awaited member to a species on the brink of extinction.
This is the first snow tiger to be born in China since the country brought a mature animal to south China's Guangdong Province in 1999, sources say.
Snow tigers are a variation of the Bengal tiger and the number of the species remaining totals 200 worldwide. It is named snow tiger because of its pure white skin, and has faint brown strips on its forehead, chest and tail.
Experts say that only one out of every 100,000 white tigers born is a snow tiger. There are only a few snow tigers left in the world.
Sources with the Harbin Municipal Zoo say that the parents of the newly born snow tiger and her three siblings were bought from Sweden and Italy in 2000 for US$109,000.
The little snow tiger is thriving. Zookeepers expect the new baby to face viewers in three months.
(eastday.com October 18, 2001)
