......con't
There is a third bloodline that comes from a white male that was captured in the Timbavati area in the late 1980's and kept by a private reserve.
As in the case of the white tigers, the white lions have been linebred to their own relatives to perpetuate the unique white/cream-colored coat. Presently, however, representatives of the various bloodlines are being brought together for the first time at a zoo by Kevin Chambers of the Zoological Animal Reproduction Center ...and who has proven indispensable in providing info on these beautiful cats...by the way...
Unlike the white tigers, all of the white lions are of a known subspecies... Panthera leo krugeri. Captive lions in general are a notoriously mixed up lot. According to the latest studbook, there are only 63 lions of known subspecies in North American and South African zoos combined. Of these... 53 are P. l. krugeri. (The Toronto Zoo, however, presently has their white female paired with a male of mixed subspecies. If they produce cubs, those cubs will not be subspecies-pure.). At current date there are only 25 White Lions within the United States.
Zoo Dynamics
