The BIG cat who likes getting wet and wild

 

by MICHAEL HANLON - More by this author » Last updated at 11:46am on 29th May 2007 Comments (23)

Most cats do not like getting wet - as anyone who has tried to bathe a moggie will know.

But as these pictures show, there's always the exception to the rule. For the cat in question is a large male white Bengal tiger called Odin.

Six years old, and at the prime of his life, Odin lives at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Zoo in Vallejo, near San Francisco. He is about 10ft long from nose to tail, and is an excellent swimmer.

 

More....

• VIDEO: Watch the Big Cat in action here

Scroll down for more

Wet 'n'wild: Odin learned to swim by diving in after chunks of meat

 

White tigers - the colour is caused by an unusual genetic combination - are rare in the wild, although there are several dozen in zoos.

Odin was hand-raised at the zoo. And after he was weaned, his British trainer Lee Munro discovered his remarkable skill: when a lump of meat was thrown into a pool of water, Odin would happily dive in after it.

Scroll down for more

Go tiger! This Big Cat seems as comfortable in the water as on land

 

The water is grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

 

 

In fact, although Big Cats generally do not like water, tigers of all types have been spotted taking to the water to hunt and even to bathe for pleasure.

Odin can now be observed in action - a large pool with glass walls has been constructed at the zoo to allow visitors to watch him gliding through the water with all the grace of a polar bear.

Scroll down for more

Odin with his British trainer Lee Munro

 

Tragically, within our lifetimes, zoos might be the only places left to see these magnificent animals.

A century ago there were about 100,000 tigers in the wild. Now there are just 2,500 adults, with the Bengal variety almost extinct.

Woah!!! I love white tigers:)

 

There're so beautiful:)

 

I always thought that cats (even big ones ) were afraid of the water... finally, they're not!

That's stunning to see a tiger swimming!

Well if they'd stop throwing all his food into the water! That's an awfully small baby bottle for such a big kitty. :P Houston zoo used to have a tiger that liked to float around in his barrier pond on a beer keg. :laugh3:

Well if they'd stop throwing all his food into the water! That's an awfully small baby bottle for such a big kitty. :P Houston zoo used to have a tiger that liked to float around in his barrier pond on a beer keg. :laugh3:

 

In that case it must have been a BengALE tiger!!:rolleyes:

now tigers can be a threat on land and water:stunned:

now tigers can be a threat on land and water:stunned:

 

Surely it can't be long before there'll be sea LIONS too!!:P

tigers have always liked swimming. one of my favourite pictures as a kid was a tiger swimming in a pool, surrounded by waterweeds, with the light playing shadows all over him