Nandankanan Zoo, in the state of Orissa, India, is home to the world’s largest population of white tigers, with over 34 specimens. This zoo has bred many white tigers, and has sent them to other zoos all over the world.

All white tigers currently in captivity around the world are directly descended from a male specimen called Mohan. He was captured alive as a cub in the jungles of the old Indian state of Rewa (now part of Madhya Pradesh) during May 1951, since when no other white tiger has ever been seen in the wild. White tigers have blue eyes and pale brown stripes, but are not a separate species. Instead, they are a type of partial albino form of Bengal tiger known as a chinchilla albino, whose freak colouration is caused by a single recessive mutant allele (gene form).