[Photo] Golden tiger at the Buffalo Zoo. From wikipedia article: "The golden tabby tiger or golden tiger is an extremely rare colour variation caused by a recessive gene and now found only in captive tigers. ... There are currently believed to be less than 30 of these rare tigers in the world, but many more carriers of the gene." Date: 16 December 2006, Author: Dave Pape http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Davepape Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Golden_tiger_3_-_Buffalo_Zoo.jpg

A golden tiger, golden tabby tiger or strawberry tiger is one with an extremely rare color variation caused by a recessive gene that is currently only found in captive tigers. Like the white tiger, it is a color form and not a separate species. In the case of the golden tiger, this is the wide band gene; while the white tiger is due to the color inhibitor (chinchilla) gene. There are currently believed to be fewer than 30 of these rare tigers in the world, one of them is in Pakistan but many more carriers of the gene.

This type of rare tiger is only found in captivity. The coloring is a result of a recessive gene, and sometimes the Golden Tabby is also called the Strawberry Tiger. These types of tigers have a Bengal parentage, but generally have Amur tiger in their lineage somewhere. This type of tiger has been in existence as far back as the early 1900s, and their occurrence is strangely tied to areas with a heavy concentration of clay in the soil. There are less than 30 of these tigers known in existence.