National Geographic : 1989 Sep
NA O AP MAGAA A Mini-explosion in White Tiger Births Among the most beautiful of all ani mals, the white tiger has become a favorite of Americans since the first one to arrive in this country Mohini, or Enchantress -settled in Washington's National Zoo (GEO GRAPHIC, May 1961). A mutant strain of the Bengal tiger, white tigers are very rare. Before 1951, when the Maharaja of Rewa captured a white male cub- NGSCARTOGRAPHIC DIVISION MICHAELS. YAMASHITA Mohini's father-and began to breed them, only nine had been sighted in India's jungles in 50 years. Mohini mothered several white cubs, starting with Rewati (GEOGRAPH IC, April 1970). The most prominent collection of white tigers outside India belongs to illusionists Siegfried and Roy, who use the animals in their show. Their menagerie grew last December when a female white tiger named Sitarra gave birth to three white male cubs (above). The entertainers now own 14 of the world's 100 to 120 white tigers. A Zuni National Park: 1,600 Years of History When the Spanish explorer Coro nado reached the village of Hawikuh, in what is now New Mexico, in 1540, he was one of the first Europeans to make contact with the natives of the American Southwest. In his quest for a treasure-filled land called Cfbola, he found instead the thriving agricultural society of the Zuni, with major urban centers and great ruins suggesting a significant his tory. Today's Zuni are descendants of a succession of peoples who have lived in the area since A.D . 400. That historical continuum will be the focus of the new Zuni-Cibola National Historical Park being created on Zuni owned land in New Mexico under a law passed by Congress in 1988. Instead of taking land from its Indian owners, the National Park Service will lease it for at least 99 years, rent free, from the Zuni tribe and will train Zuni to operate the park and interpret the region's history for visitors and Zuni alike. Local and federal officials and the Zuni tribe-which has sought such a park for more than 20 years-are now in what a Park Service spokesman calls the "heavy planning stage." Among other things, they will deter mine the park's boundaries. The park will almost certainly include such sites as Hawikuh, the Village of the Great Kivas, Yellow House, and Kechipbowa, where the Zuni and their ancestors-the Mogollon and Anasazi (GEOGRAPHIC, November 1982) -cre ated a rich cultural tradition. A Role for the Male in (Fish) Childbirth The yellowhead j awfish is a shy crea ture, tending its burrow on the sandy bottom off the Cayman Islands. During the mating season a male j awfish becomes even more retir ing: He's busy incubating the female's fertilized eggs-in his mouth. J. Michael Kelly, who spent two months photographing a pair of jaw fish, reports that the female spawned several successive egg masses. Each time, the male then took the eggs, J. MICHAELKELLY alternating between keeping them in his mouth and storing them in the safe ty of his burrow. Early in the four-to five-day incubation period the male took the eggs into his mouth for just a few minutes each hour, holding them in his open jaws and letting the current wash over them. Often he spat the eggs into the current, then rapidly sucked them back in. Each day brought more of this activity until, by the end of the incubation period, the male spent most of the day outside his burrow, rolling the eggs into the current every three or four minutes. The female showed no interest in any of this. Kelly says that by the end of the mating season the male looked "hag gard and gaunt."