White Tiger @ SG

Jan 2016: I had just bought a new lens.. Nikkor 70 – 200mm f/2.8. Combining your hobby and a family outing doesn’t work out well, always. Since I was so anxious to try my new lens, I chose to carry it to Singapore Zoo during a Saturday outing. Zoology is not my favourite subject, but, each time I visit this zoo, I learn something new and interesting.

A typical visit to the zoo is like working on a project; you have limited time available and need to complete the whole area within that time. By doing this, we end up spending very little time observing the animals. Smart phones have slightly changed the agenda of visiting a zoo – selfie with animals! This visit to the zoo was quite a different experience, after which, I don’t like to consider the caged animals and birds as just ‘exhibits’ or ‘attractions’. There should be far better terms in english, that could be used instead. Come on, they are also living beings with equal rights to be here, on this wonderful planet.

It was another hot and humid day in January. We reached the zoo just after lunch and weren’t motivated enough to do the usual routine. After walking a bit, we reached the White Tiger exhibit. I hoped to get few clicks of the beautiful and ferocious animal (Pasha) in front of me. But, the tiger appeared to be lazier than me. He was planning for an afternoon nap. That was not the posture that I wanted to capture. I was hoping for a majestic look (as in the picture below, which I took after waiting some time).

Since he wasn’t very active and gave a tired and lazy / bored look, I decided to wait there. My wife continued walking with our kid, before he lost his patience. I waited there observing the tiger and reading the small information board. I got to know that white tiger was not a sub-species of tigers, but, a mutated gene caused this white colour, brown stripes and blue eyes to a tiger. Unfortunately, these guys have difficulty to camouflage within their normally green and brown habitats. Poor guys, managing a meal could be a real challenge.

Here, in this environment with human ‘care’, food shouldn’t be an issue (at least, not an issue in Singapore zoo; not sure about many other zoos). Timely meal, regular health check, celebrity like attention and visitors from all over the world was the normal (or royal) life here. Singapore zoo takes good care of their animals.

I started sensing another emotion from his look. If you take a minute or two to observe the close-up shot of his expression (pic below), probably, you would agree with me. I suspect one or more of these to be the thoughts being processed in the tiger’s mind – nostalgia, home sickness, sadness, loneliness or helplessness. If I was making a Bollywood style movie, this looks like a perfect scene to start narrating the tiger’s flashback.

Suddenly, a lot more questions started popping up in my mind.

• Is this the kind of life any tiger would like or wish for?
• Will they consider this home or are they eager to go back?
• Are they getting spoilt here? Will they survive if sent back to the wild?
• Are we humans helping these animals or exploiting them?
• Would they be feeling like retirees who had a busy professional life and suddenly feel extremely bored during their initial days of retirement and later get accustomed to it?
• Do they feel oppressed? What if I’m ending up in such a situation? What would I be able to do?

I even noticed a distant similarity to the workers who leave their homeland voluntarily or due to social pressure, travel thousands of kilometres to find a good life. I’m referring to the workers we find at construction sites, shipyards and housing estates in Singapore doing all the hard physical work. They probably have a decent life, a safer and comfortable place to live, regular income with some savings and many other benefits. Still, their hearts would be filled with thoughts about home and craving a return.

Oh wait, do you now think that my thoughts could have been influenced by the movie ‘Life of Pi‘ that I had watched couple of days ago? Am I starting to be Pi and looking at that Tiger as Richard Parker? As Pi says in the move, “Animals have souls, I have seen it in their eyes”. Probably, I am seeing myself through those blue eyes. Anyways, the look in those eyes does mean something that we don’t understand. But, we can definitely respect them better.

I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi