A golden tiger, golden tabby tiger or strawberry tiger is one with an extremely rare color variation caused by a recessive gene that is currently only found in captive tigers. Like the white tiger, it is a color form and not a separate species. In the case of the golden tiger, this is the wide band gene; while the white tiger is due to the color inhibitor (chinchilla) gene. There are currently believed to be fewer than 12 of these rare tigers in the world, but many more carriers of the gene.