A set of extremely rare golden tiger quadruplets was born in a zoo in China last month, showing the adorable pictures of the cubs sleeping inside the incubator, according to MailOnline.
The reports said that there are three female cubs and only one male cub. Nonetheless, the four are born healthy on October 19 in the Zhejiang Province in eastern China.
The golden tiger cubs have blonde fur with red-brown stripes due to a recessive trait. They belong to a species that is said to be 62 times rarer than the giant pandas. So far, only about 30 of them exist in the world.
Rare Golden Tigers Born in China
Based on the footage and photos, the 12-day old golden tiger cubs were seen sleeping and frolicking with each other inside their incubators. Two of the cubs were seen sleeping with each other.
Their mother was a captive golden tiger who gave birth to them last Monday, October 19, at the Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise which is an amusement park that features a wildlife zoo in eastern Chinese city Huzhou.
According to the park officials, zookeepers take care of the golden tiger cubs 24 hours a day since their first-time parents have not yet shown any affection towards the quadruplets due to a lack of maternal experience.
Golden Tigers: Rarer Than Giant Pandas
According to zoo officials, golden tigers are considered more precious than giant pandas because they are extremely rare due to low fertility rates. Currently, they are on their third spot of the rarest cats on the planet. In a social media post, the zoo said that golden tigers are a mutant species by the genetic mutation of Bengal tigers.
"The breeding rate is lower than that of their close relatives, the white tiger, and the snow tiger, and there are fewer of them than the pandas," they added.
Golden tigers are known for their white coat with golden or pale-gold fur and red-brown stripes, which comes from a recessive trait that affects the production of the black pigment on the fur during the hair growth reproduction cycle.
Moreover, the color of the golden tigers may vary sometimes. Although it is just small in percentage, some of the golden tigers may have the typical orange-with-black stripes.
There are only 30 golden tigers recorded around the world, which makes these tigers rarer even more than the giant pandas. Their number is 63 times lesser than those of giant pandas, which have approximately 1,864 based on the latest census of the World Wildlife in 2014.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has shifted the classification of giant pandas from a once-endangered species thanks to the tireless efforts of Chinese conservationists for many years.
The first records of golden tigers can be date back to the 1900s in India. The first golden tiger cub born in captivity was in 1983, according to the website Animal's Look, which lists the rarest cats in history.
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