Animation Source Forums

Would you try to dye a tigers fur? I son't think they could've mistaken it for a black jaguar/leopard either, mainly as tigers and jaguars/leopards don't live near each other, plus it was reported that they had goldish tan striped markings.

Whitewolf_spirit: Oh, I see what you mean now, sorry, poor Brumas.

Actually that "black tiger" wasn't even a tiger. As far as I know it was a black dyed lion, which they labeled as black tiger

Alright, what I just found about the Beastmaster "Panther":

Look, hearing about this is fun and all but, I've found some interesting tidbits of information on the black tiger at wikipedia.




Recent reports:

During the early 1970s, Oklahoma City Zoo's pair of tigers produced six litters. Three of the four cubs in the third litter were abnormally coloured. One had the normal background colour but all four limbs were abnormally dark. A second had dark feet, though these gradually grew lighter as it matured and were the normal colour when it reached adulthood. The third, and most interesting, had the normal background colour, but considerable darkening over the shoulders, down both front legs, over the pelvis, and encompassing both black legs. The darkening was more-or-less the same colour as the stripes. The striped pattern was only visible over the darkened areas. Unfortunately, three of the cubs were killed by the mother, leaving only the dark-footed cub. The black cub was preserved in formalin. Quite possibly it would have become lighter in colour as it matured, just like the feet of the surviving cub.

During winter 1975/6, two adult black tigers were seen in bright sunlight on the road leading to Matughar meadow; the sighting was made by Orissa Forest Service officials accompanied by two foreign tourists. In 1991, a black cub was seen with two adults and a normal colour cub at Devasthali, though this sighting was dismissed as an optical illusion. During 1996, adult black tigers were observed several times. A yellow-striped black tiger was seen near Baladaghar . A black tiger was seen near Bachhurichara, between Patabil and Devasthali. Some time later, a yellow-striped black tiger was seen between Patabil and Devasthali.

In 1992, the pelt of another apparently true melanistic tiger was confiscated from a hunter and smuggler at Tis Hazari, south Delhi. The top of the head and back were black, while the sides showed shadow striping on a black background colour. The pelt was exhibited at the National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi, in February 1993. In 1993, a young boy shot a melanistic female tiger in self defence with a bow and arrow, near the village of Podagad, west of Similipal Tiger Reserve. Initial examination suggested the background colour was black with white abdominal stripes and tawny dorsal stripes. According to Valmik Thapar in "Tiger The Ultimate Guide", the only proof of black tigers is a skin with a black head and back. K Ullas Karanth wrote in "The Way Of The Tiger" that a partially black tiger was recently killed by poachers in Assam.

So, to me in fact there were-and maybe are- black tigers.

The problem is that this is made up on reports of sightings, which in most cases are incorrect. People make this up due to optical illusions, or misinterpretate the sightings of melanistic leopards.

Since no documentation in fur or photography has been made until now (which is the only truth, as I didn't ever stumble accross a piece of an exhibition that could be confirmed as genuine), it's very unlikely that they still lived in the last century, or that they ever existed.

Unusual fur colouration can't be counted as melanism, by the way. It's in fact "usual" that every tiger shows his own stripe pattern, like a finger print, including bigger black areas on their body.

For example - Amir has some quite special markings on his Arms:


...whereas the regular tiger colouration is just red there:

I have to agree with you Kovu, no real evidence of their existence has ever come to light exept from reports of people who claim to have seen them, although the validity of these reports in questionable, I will still hope they exist but until it's proven I won't really believe the reports.


P.S. Those pics are adorable.

Eventhough I do it myself - I have to remind you that tigers are dangerous fellows. NEVER try to do it in a zoo or somewhere else you could get in contact with them. It will end badly in any case, well, deadly in most cases. Tigers only allow contact with people that are familiar to them, and it's required that you understand their desires, will and language.


Kovu's first rule: Never trust a humans output
Kovu's second rule: Never trust the contents on the internet
Kovu's third rule: Never trust in books and movies

So, why? Wherever humans tell you something, the humans lie. No matter if intentionally or not - they lie. That includes scientists, doctors, business people, civilists... just everyone (yes, me too, of course). The only things you can trust in are facts and animals - because they always tell you the truth.

Do your own research on the REAL matter instead of just following the words of other people, then build an opinion - and get your opinion into harmony with other professional opinions. Only that way you'll find the truth.

I agree with you DarkHusky, we may never know if the black tiger is real or not, or even if they were do they exist nowq? The thought of a black tiger is amazing in my eyes, one day I would hope to see it[Which is pretty uncommon since my goal is to be a wolf biologist.] But well, I hope the facts are true and we do one day find out about the black tiger.

I love tigers there my second favorite animal but I never heard of a black tiger

Actually I don't see why people always go for white (or in that case black) tigers. There's nothing that could ever rule out the regular red-white colouration, in my opinion. Leucistic and melanistic animals may indeed be interesting because of that error they carry, but I don't see a reason why they should be rebred just for the heck of it - that everyone has or sees one of them.

Well personally the regular coloured tiger is my favourite.