A rare Bengal white tiger gave birth to four cubs last week at a zoo in the Crimean resort town of Yalta.

A Zoo official said it was very unusual for a tiger to produce four cubs as they normally give birth to just two.

One of the cubs is an albino. Three others have visible black stripes.

The tigress is named Tigryulya and was given to the zoo as a gift by former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2009 after a disturbing number of the zoo's animals died in one month. They were reportedly poisoned but the perpetrators were never found.

Several hundred white tigers are said to be in captivity worldwide, with about one hundred located in India.

The unusual white coloration has made them popular in zoos.

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