Like
most of us I have known about white tigers but I never knew that black tigers
also existed. Black panthers yes, but never heard of black tigers. Logically
speaking, if tigers can be white why couldn’t they be black? It is all a matter
of pigments – melanism actually that causes the generally known colour of skins
or hair to go haywire, so to say.
The
Down to Earth magazine in its current issue has reported sighting of black
tigers in Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha. The tigers were photographed with
the help of camera-trap. A scanned copy of the published photograph is below.
A
little research revealed that black tigers have had a long history. There have
been reports of sighting of absolutely black tigers – say, like black panthers
and there have been reports of black tigers with stripes of lighter black
shades. Looks like, Odisha had registered a number of sightings. The ones
photographed at Simlipal are, however, partially black with the stripes on the
hind side and shoulders pronouncedly black. Closer to the camera, the black
tiger looks pretty well-fed and a trifle aggressive even though the camera has
caught only its profile.
12th
April 2017
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