Two ‘black’ tigers extremely rare They were captured walking through the Nandankanan National Park in eastern India.
The impressive creatures have only been seen in the state of Odisha and experts have claimed in recent years that only seven to eight remain in the region.
Black tigers get their distinctive appearance due to genetic mutations called pseudomelanismwhere its dark striped pattern merges into light golden orange fur, which often makes their fur look completely dark.
Amateur photographer Satya Swagat, 23, a business student from New Delhi, he was only 10 meters away as he took pictures of the rare animals, all male, last November.
“I got goosebumps when I first saw the melanistic tiger. It was hard for me to believe my eyes and for a minute I forgot to pick up my camera when the big cat moved right in front of my eyes.stated to TheDailyMail.
“I was amazed at the beauty of the rare tiger. I kept calm and the tiger pleased me with better sightings and better poses”he added.
The photographer who first heard about the melanistic tiger from his friends who had visited Nandankanan, adding: “Not many have seen them in the woods and not many people have been able to get this close to these rare cats.”
Swagat said that in 2020 he had the opportunity to photograph a tiger but didn’t get a decent shot, so he didn’t post the photos. But last November he managed to capture not just one, but two different individuals.
Black tigers were rare even when the feral cat population was abundant in the country centuries ago.
In September, Odisha’s elusive black tigers were lit up when researchers looking at the endangered animals in the Similipal reserve suggested that the exclusivity in the genetic mutation stems from the fact that lTigers are inbred and rarely, if ever, interact with other species outside of the East Indian state.
“The researchers combined genetic analyzes of other Indian tiger populations and data from computer simulations to show that the Similipal black tigers may have emerged from a very small founding population of tigers and are inbred,” Indian Express reported.
A black tiger was also spotted by a stunned animal lover in Odisha in late 2020, and was photographed by hobbyist Soumen Bajpayee.
Black tiger sightings have been photographed only at Similipal in Odisha since 2007, but have been observed there since 1993.
Financial Express reports that alleged all-black tiger sightings have been made since 1773 when artist James Forbes painted one in Kerala.
Similar rumors were made in Myanmar in 1913 and in China in 1950.
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Source-www.infobae.com