Tigers are supposed to be regal, fearless beings; one roar and the entire jungle hides in the bushes. However, it looks like they are not too different from us after all as a male white tiger in Alipore Zoo in Kolkata seems to have no intention of mating and has gotten cold feet when it comes to the girls, rather a tigress in this case.
According to a report in BBC , Vishal, a 10-year-old white tiger, has so far rebuffed the advances of tigress Rupa and experts are blaming his “shyness” to be the cause.
“For the past six months we’ve been trying to mate Vishal. We have de-wormed him to improve his overall health. We have given him libido enhancers, including vitamin D, A and E. But he is shy and no libido has been noticed in him,” BBC quoted Dayanarayan Banerjee, a retired senior veterinary officer at the zoo currently now working as a veterinary consultant there, as saying.
Rupa, it seems, is willing, but poor Vishal seems to have taken a leaf out of the book of a yellow-bellied high school kid smitten with a girl.
“We cannot understand what happens to him when he sees Rupa. He runs away with his tail between his legs,” a Times of India report quoted Banerjee as saying.
Vishal could be nervous about the entire thing as all eyes are on him to ‘deliver’, but he needs to muster up some guts and go for it.