White tiger cubs born in the Ukraine

A white tigeress named named Tigrulya gave birth to four tiger cubs in a Yalta zoo on the seventh of May. The newborns are in good health and are being taken care of by staff at the Skazka Zoo in southern Ukraine.

Tigress Tigrulya showing off one of her cubs
Photograph: AP

The name of the mother tiger, Tigrulya, was chosen to honour the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. A contest is now being held to name the four newborn cubs.

four tiger cubs

Four beautiful cubs, snug in a wooden basket
Photograph: AP

It is very rare that four white tigers are born in a single litter and what is more one of the cubs is an albino with no striped markings on his body at all.

Previously (on the 4th August 2010) a litter of rare white tiger cubs were born at a zoo in northern Germany. These events are extremely important as fewer than 250 white tigers exist worldwide, most of them in captivity. It is said that less than one hundred white tigers exist in the wild.