Why is the white tiger endangered?

Answer 1

All tigers have been classified as endangered due to loss of habitat and illegal poaching to harvest pelts and body parts for Chinese medicine. The white tiger is not a species unto itself, so cannot be separately classed as endangered or any other listing. It is merely a genetic flaw of the Bengal tiger, and is extremely rare in the wild. The white tiger hasn't been seen in the wild for some time. White tigers have a recessive gene that creates the pale coloration and not many tigers carry that gene so white tigers are not born as much as orange tiger. In fact only 1 in every 10 000 Bengal tigers is why, making them extremely rare.

When tigers start stealing domestic animals, it normally ends with the tiger's death. Farmers kill tigers as they are stealing their animals and because they are just afraid of them. Today there are about 1500 Indochinese tigers, 3000 Bengal, 800 malyan , 400 to 500 Siberian, 500 sumatran and only 60 of south China's live in china's zoo.

The white tiger is an extremely rare color morph of the Bengal tiger. All those in captivity came from a few captured years ago in Rewa,India. These animals were bred by mating them to normal colored tigers,and sometimes white cubs would be produced,sometimes in litters with normal colored siblings.

The one in zoos are "created" by getting tigers to mate their siblings. Unfortunately, this domestic breeding of white tigers includes constant inbreeding which causes many defects. Given the rarity of the mutation to start with, white tigers on display in zoos and similar are (usually) heavily inbred, with the associated defects and health issues. Human's captive breeding white tigers has degraded the genetic diversity in the current specimens and the AZA has mandated that they do not support this type of breeding.

In the wild, they've always been rare, both from birth, and from having more difficulties surviving due to their poorer camouflage making it harder for them to hunt.

It can be argued that there's not much benefit to trying to preserve the white tigers, but more important to try to preserve the regular tiger.

Please see the link in the discussion below for an interesting read about white tigers.

Answer 2

They are hunted for the unique fur.

Answer 3

because of poaching and habitat loss