# 'Black Tiger' Found in Sri Lanka



## kyektulu (Mar 9, 2009)

It is being reported by local media on March 7th that the carcass of a female black tiger was found in southern Sri Lanka on Friday, March 6, 2009.









_The Daily Mirror_ (source of the photos) said the carcass of a “black tigress” was found after it got caught in a poacher’s snare in Deniyaya, around 125 miles (about 201 km) southeastern of the capital Colombo.
 The newspaper quoted the Wild Life Department as saying that the black tiger’s length from head to tail is 3 ft 7.5 inches (1.1 meters), the height is 2 feet (0.61 meter) and the tail alone had measured up to 2 feet 4 inches (over 0.71 meter).
 From a distance, its color is jet black and when inspected from a closer distance, spots are vaguely visible, the newspaper said. 
 “From a distance, its colour is jet black and when inspected from a closer distance, spots are vaguely visible,” Wadawalawa “Athathun Sevana” Vet Dr. Kumudini said. According to her, the “tigress” had not fully grown yet however because of the rarity of the species the exact age cannot be determined. (If “spots” are being seen, then why isn’t this a melanistic leopard? Is there some mistranslation here? The photographs have embedded labels of “Black panther.”- Loren.)
 Dr. Kumudini also said that the “black tigress” showed signs that are common to the “Panthara Pardus Kotiya” (i.e. _Panthera pardus kotiya_, the Sri Lankan leopard) species. According to Dr. Kumudini there had been a similar discovery of a “black tiger” from the Kalavana area some years ago, yet the carcass had been too decomposed to gain proper identification. 
 She claimed that further investigations are necessary to determine whether the creature is a subspecies or a non-agouti mutation of the “Panthara Pardus Kotiya species” [sic].
 The newspaper quoted an expert as saying that the “tiger” had not fully grown yet however “because of the rarity of the species the exact age cannot be determined.” 
 The “black tigers” are “very rarely species [sic] in Sri Lanka,” according to the Xinhua News Services. Experts said there had been a few sightings of “black tigers” from the Kalavana, Horton Plains and Sripada areas.
 This seems clearly to be a black Sri Lankan leopard.
 + + +
 Cryptozoologically, melanistic felids and black tigers are of interest. In 2007, camera trap photos were taken of an alleged black mother tiger and her two offspring in India. (See more, here.)
 I wrote articles on melanistic felids, including black tigers which were published, some in the zoo literature, in the 1970s, and Karl Shuker nicely summarized old reports of black tigers and other black cats in his 1989 book, _Mystery Cats of the World_.  Wikipedia has an easily accessible article detailing the long history of melanistic and black tiger reports and evidence, here.  
 While reports of such tigers in India and South Asia are often referred to as “black tigers,” reports of similarly-colored tigers in China frequently are termed “blue tigers,” or more rarely, “Maltese tigers.”
 Needless to say, “black tigers” are not separate species or subspecies that have a different maturity rate of development than normal color phase tigers, despite what is being noted by the Asian media on the Sri Lankan report (which seems to be a black panther, a black leopard, not a tiger).
 Photos of alleged black tigers are known, from the recent past.








 On 21 July 1993, around 10 a.m., a boy, in self-defense, killed a young melanistic tigress with a bow and arrows. The incident occurred in the village of Podagad in the Bhandan river valley west of Similipal Tiger Reserve, India. The main peculiarity in body coloration was that the dorsal stripes were tawny and the ventral stripes white on a black background [or the black stripes were wider than the orange dorsal and white ventral backgrounds]. The animal was photographed (see photos) and videotaped.

All text with thanks to Loren Coleman, Cryptomundo.


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## kyektulu (Mar 9, 2009)

Now all I had to do was read the headline and say... eh... it cant be a Tiger since they are not native to Sri Lanka and my thoughts were instantly justified by the pictures, it is a Leopard of the _Panthera pardus kotiya.


_Such a beautiful creature, another rare and invaluble life cut short and murdered needlessly by these evil poachers.
I cannot comprehend why it is being reported as a Black Tiger when the rosettes on its hide are blantently visible, but still as valuble and a tragedy for nature.


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## Overread (Mar 9, 2009)

whilst I don't know distributions that well the comment about spots was a dead give away since tigers don't have spots 
Certainly a great shame that the cat is dead - and worse is that it was a snare (often takes a while to die when your caught be one of those ). I guess that the Daily Mirror can't be bothered with a bit of cat research beyond a quick Wiki search and rehash - which is why we have the odd reports.


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