Data collected from camera traps indicates that only six to seven melanistic tigers remain in India today. They are found only in Odisha.
So-called black tigers are due to pseudo-melanism. Pseudo-melanistic tigers have thick stripes so close together that the tawny background is barely visible between stripes. In Simlipal National Park, 37% of the tiger population has this condition, which has been linked to isolation and inbreeding.
Tigers can indeed change their stripes—and in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in India, many have done just that. So-called black tigers, genetic mutants that sport unusually wide and merged stripes, were extremely rare even when tigers were plentiful centuries ago. But in Similipal today, one in three are black.
Black Tigers are exclusively found in India's Simplipal Tiger Reserve. It is said to be the only place in the world where this gene of the tiger can be traced down. Similipal National Park is a national park and a tiger reserve in the Mayurbhanj district in the Indian state of Odisha.
There are no known white tigers in the wild today.
The last known wild white tiger was killed in 1958 by a trophy hunter.
There are less than 20 in the wild!
White tigers are rare because their colouring is caused by a mutation in their genes – the building blocks that make all animals look the way they do. Most white tigers are Bengal tigers that have the mutation, which also gives them blue eyes.
Sumatran tigers are the rarest and smallest subspecies of tiger in the world and are currently classed as critically endangered. Tigers are both good swimmers and climbers with powerful muscular builds and large claws. In order to catch prey, they hunt alone.
Approximately 350-400 adult Siberian or Amur tigers are left in the wild, with 95% of these individuals inhabiting the forests of the Russian Far East, where they play a critical role in both the ecosystem and local culture.
There are currently believed to be fewer than 30 of these rare tigers in the world, but many more carriers of the gene.
Purple Tiger Rhyparia purpurata Inactive Taxon
It is found in Europe, Anatolia, Syria, Transcaucasus, Central Asia (mainly in Kazakhstan and Kyrghyzstan), South Siberia, Mongolia, Amur Region, northern China, Korea and Japan (Honshu).
3 Extinct Species of Tigers
Unfortunately, you won't have the opportunity to see three extinct tiger species. These include the Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata), the Bali tiger (Pantera tigris balica) and the Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica).
Researchers believe that geographic boundaries and glacial fluctuations during the Pleistocene period probably prevented the tigers from traveling back to Africa. So, no: there are no wild tigers in Africa.
The white tiger is a result of a rare genetic mutation and the most efficient way to breed them is by using two tigers who have the recessive genes needed to produce offspring with a white coat. In captive breeding facilities these two individuals are often related, making inbreeding common.
White Bengal Tigers or the White Tigers are a variation of the better-known orange Bengal tigers. Their colouration is due to a genetic defect. The defective gene is passed on from parents to cubs.
There are currently no known white tigers left in the wild. Sadly, a trophy hunter killed the last one in 1958. Including all subspecies, approximately 13,000 tigers are alive today. More than 5,000 still live in the wild.
Outside of zoos, the tiger has no physical presence in Japan, yet they hold a very special cultural significance to the Japanese people through their art, literature, poetry and history.
As the largest and most powerful subspecies of tigers, Siberian tigers are also among the most powerful animals of any species.
Amur tigers (sometimes called Siberian tigers) are the biggest tigers, with males weighing up to 660 pounds and measuring up to 10 feet long from nose to tip of the tail. Sumatran tigers are the smallest of the tiger subspecies, maxing out at about 310 pounds and 8 feet.
The rarest animal in the world is the vaquita (Phocoena sinus). It is a kind of critically endangered porpoise that only lives in the furthest north-western corner of the Gulf of California in Mexico. There are only 18 left in the world. It is thought that they may be extinct in ten years.
Blue Tigers
The rarest of the colors might just be the Maltese Tiger. If these tigers still exist, their coats are slate gray with dark gray or black stripes and have a bluish cast. Currently there are no blue tigers in zoos. One blue tiger was born in an Oklahoma zoo in the 1960s.
Known as the Queen of Ranthambore, Machli is the most famous tiger in the world. The legendary tigress is a fearsome warrior known for her daring exploits.
Rainbow Tiger or Tshenkutshen is a rather strange feline of Ecuador. It is said to be a large species with a white coat, spotted with black, but having stripes of black, white, red and yellow across it's chest.
The Siberian tiger, the largest species of tiger on the planet, is arguably the most beautiful of apex predators with its coat of black stripes against orange, acting as a camouflage in the wild. 95% of Siberian tigers, which are endangered, live in the far-east of Russia, with the other 5% residing in China.
These animals, like most mammals, are dichromats. They have just two types of functioning color receptors in the eye, meaning they are red-green blind. They struggle to distinguish between green tones and red-orange tones. For them, tigers will match the surrounding forest pretty well.