White Tiger (1996)

Please excuse the photo quality, I took it when I was a kid on a little point and shoot film camera.

Chester the white tiger. He arrived in 1992 from Nebraska Zoo and died at the age of 18 years in 1999. He also spent time at Perth Zoo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo.

@Zoofan15

Sorry to possibly distract you from the multiple current happenings you will be updating our threads with, but turns out we got given a bit of the old 'run around' treatment with records and stuff. Finally as of this afternoon know we have a relatively comprehensive life timeline for Chester that am a hundred percent sure is accurate this time.

@akasha <3 this photo, so much nostalgia

1.0 Chester the white tiger (majority Bengal descent but also of some Siberian descent)
18 June 1983 - 16 November 2000
born Henry Doorly Zoo, USA to 0.1 Obie & 1.0 Ranjit
arrived Taronga Zoo Sydney ≈10 September 1992
went to Western Plains Zoo Dubbo 31 August 1993
returned Taronga Zoo Sydney for July school holidays 1994
returned Western Plains Zoo Dubbo after July school holidays ended 1994
returned to Taronga Zoo Sydney 5 September 1995
transported to Perth Zoo 5 December 1995
public display at Perth Zoo 7 December 1995 -
15 February 1996 then transported back east
Taronga Zoo Sydney again 16 February 1996 where he
remained at Taronga Sydney until he died 16 November 2000 aged 17 years & 5 months.

(the exhibit he's in here is the one he occupied on and off between Sep' '92 and Dec' '95 until became a long term home for over three years from Feb '96 until mid '99 when he moved to an exhibit at the bottom of the 'African Waterhole' pathway (just vacated through death and transfer by hybrid African-Asian Lions) where he remained for approximately 18 months until he died Nov' '00.

**incidentally his (Chester's) exhibit in this photo was taken over by Jambo/Bruiser the less than year old African lion cub to be joined by 0.1 Kuchani from Auckland Zoo NZ in September-December 2002 (she actually arrived May 2002) who went on in '03 to have cubs Asali 0.1 and Johari 1.0 the first lion cubs born at Taronga since 1978. There was some exhibit swapping at times with the adjoining one who had Seletan & Shiva the Sumatran tigers and later with Assiqua & Juara (and cubs).

@steveroberts Thanks for sharing. That’s a lot of transfers (seven within Australia alone).

It’s interesting to note that his transfers came to a halt in 1996. His age aside, Dreamworld opened in 1995 with three white tigers and three orange tigers - meaning he was no longer the only white tiger in the region; and indeed New Zealanders would have been more likely to visit the Gold Coast and see Tiger Island than visit Chester at Taronga or Perth. The birth of the quadruplets in 1998 (including white tiger Taj) was extremely well publicised and indeed no tiger cub born there since has attained the same fame.

@Zoofan15

Pleasure bro, always really appreciate that you have the refined skill of picking up on stats that might go unnoticed (heck I even typed and didnt bother to count this time lol, yet will be on google earth for hours trying to get a rough estimate of exhibit spatial capacities). Didn't know that there hadn't been the same level of fame since the the mid to late '90s at Dreamworld with tiger births (god they've had more than 20 years since, and a never ending sea of visitors, albeit the 2016 tragedy with the ride when they closed down after those people were killed, rip).

When I was 9 saw Bona the white tiger at WP in mid '98 (online readings says he was of full Bengal genes, via Ragunan Zoo, Jakarta) but I thought it was Chester at first and a zookeeper who happened to be there told me it was not, naming Bona and all but forgot his name for years after unfortunately.

He (Bona) didn't arrive at WP until March '96, so unlike what had assumed seeing him in mid '98 he was not Australia's ''Buzz Alderan'' of white tigers. Did not personally Dreamworld tv commercials featuring their white tigers until about '99. So the 1995 arrival info had learned thanks to you a few years back surprised me at first just how sooner Dreamworld's tigers had actually arrived in Aus'. (cant remember now if Chester Zoo UK was Europe's first holder of white tigers, but do remember Nat' Zoo Washington D.C was first in U.S in early '60s and the man who payed the transfer from India, from memory an inbred son of Mohan who was also his grandsire, was as ''a gift to the children of America'' (tone is hard to convey sometimes in writing, not sneering at that statement at all..would of condoned at the time, very 1960s thing to do, heck even 1990s thing to do).

Its funny because always thought New Zealanders might come to Sydney more often but realised my NZ heritage friends growing up had parents who emigrated in the '60s and '70s so think nowadays (sorry realise am combining visits with emigration), but think Sydney was more popular a destination with majority of NZ travellers from the '60s through the '80s but with the 'Gold Coast Boom' as my year 11 geography teacher quipped with the titular name of the region sounding like the famous gold-rush booms; the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, Qld became way more popular destinations since the late '80s/early '90s (do get the tropical appeal given Sydney for Nth Island New Zealand tourists is just skipping the Tasman for the same climate lol).