Golden Tiger | Black Tiger

Jan 27, 2024

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Context (TH): Assam Chief Minister shared a picture of a golden tiger on X (formerly Twitter) to celebrate National Tourism Day (Jan 25th).
A few years back, ‘Kazi 106F‘ India’s only Golden Tiger, emerged as social media sensation.
Golden tigers are also known as ‘Tabby tigers’ or ‘Strawberry tigers’.
The skin of tigers is orange-yellow with black stripes and a whitish abdominal region.
The yellowish background is controlled by a set of agouti genes and their alleles.
Tabby genes and their alleles control the black colour stripes.
Suppression of any of these genes may lead to colour variation in tigers.
Tigers found in Kaziranga National park are different from the rest of the world in territorial behavioural patterns.

Odisha’s famous Black Tigers

black tiger

Melanistic tigers/Black tigers are found exclusively in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha.
They are a rare colour variant of the Bengal tiger.
Unlike the typical orange coat with dark stripes, melanistic tigers have a dark black or nearly black coat with faint or almost invisible stripes.
This dark colouration is due to a genetic condition known as melanism, where there is an excessive development of dark pigmentation (melanin) in the skin and fur.
A single mutation in the gene Transmembrane Aminopeptidase Q (Taqpep) causes the black tigers to develop broadened stripes.
Odisha is setting up an exclusive Melanistic Tiger Safari near Similipal Tiger Reserve.