“Black Tiger” Found In Sri Lanka
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 7th, 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.
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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.
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Sri Lanka photo assistance, thanks to theprof.
- Similar Phenomena:
Mmmm, Tigers aren’t found in Sri Lanka, so this is without doubt a melanistic leopard.
Well, Sri Lanka does have the Tamil Tigers. Sorry, I couldn’t let that one go by.
An interesting prehistoric and now extinct felid found on Ceylon was Panthera leo sinhaleyus, the Sri Lanka lion or Ceylon lion.
I was rather suspicious since Felids are one of my specialities and I have a brother over in Sri Lanka who is going to check. That said, I don’t think he should bother!
This looks like Panthera pardus kotiya to me and NOT a tiger – even the “expert” says “Tiger”?!!
[This posting has been updated with the addition of the photos forwarded from this individual. ~ Loren]
Another rare animal uselessly killed by poachers. And the Tamil Tigers are getting wiped out too.
That is a leopard. The leopard rosettes are clearly visible. Maybe there was some problem in the translation, in the original report.
It does look like a good-sized leopard, but also looks like the perspective may be forced in full-body the photo.
Sorry, don’t like anonymity too much! I thought I was logged in under my name not “The Prof”. It’s Terry Hooper. Not the black leopard -my name!
I agree it is almost certainly a leopard.
Great find, Loren…
It’s a shame it’s dead…:(
Its a leopard.Not a tiger.You can see the sppots on the first pic.
Whether it’s the translation I don’t know but every item I’ve found on this cat says it’s a tiger. Whether they just call it that locally I have no idea but since we are talking about wild life authorities I’m guessing it has to be the case.
The leopards look very gracile and they seem to inhabit the plains as well as forestry in Sri Lanka. I think the experts believe that this is a new sub species which is melanistic -another was killed a few years back.
Gracile, melanistic and with some habits (not stated specifically but I’m looking into it) not displayed by the “regular” Sri Lankan leopards may be why it’s being called a “tiger” to distinguish it from the others.
Confuses me!
What confuses me even more is the rumour of an actual striped tiger hiding out in Sri Lanka!
Yea, I also got the impression that it’s just called “tiger” to distinguish it and not because they think it’s a tiger.
I’m going to buck the trend and say it’s a tiger/leopard cross. Look at how long the head is. It’s the only thing tigerish about it.
I’m not animal expert but I was pretty sure it wasn’t a tiger from the size description. Roughly 3.5′ long? I was watching a show on Discovery just this past weekend that mention that adult tigers grow upwards of 8′ in length, and that got my attention, so one less than half that size would almost certainly be a very young tiger or very small due to poor nutrition. Anyway, interesting article.
That face looks pure leopard to me. The face looks longer and more gracile because it’s a female and doesn’t have the heavy musculature of a male.
That being said, I think that there is plenty of evidence for the existence of a separate species, or at least a separate subspecies, of leopard – one more gracile than most, and always (or almost always) melanisitc. Apparently, preliminary DNA testing on this leopard indicates that there may be a difference in the melanin from the commonly accepted subspecies Panthera pardus kotiya. It’ll be interesting to see what turns up in further testing.
I seriously doubt that a tiger/leopard hybrid breeding would occur in the wild (I haven’t even found solid documentation for tiger/leopard hybrids in captivity). Wild tigers often kill leopards, and leopards whose ranges overlap that of tigers try to stay very aware of the tigers’ location so that they can avoid them.
Possibly the local people are referring to this cat as a “tiger” in the same way that many people in South America refer to jaguars as “tigers” – using “tiger” as a colloquial term to differentiate it from smaller cats such as golden cats.
its not a tiger, its to small, and it has spots, its a black leopard, anyone looking at this picture can see this very well.
“… said the carcass of a “black tigress” was found after it got caught in a poacher’s snare in Deniyaya…”
Say, what happen to the poacher, was he caught and prosecuted?
I do have a question about the tiger also: Ive been looking around the net and I dont find any references to Sri Lankan tigers (except the militant variety) are there in fact tigers in Sri Lanka?
wisaaka,
Officially, no, there are no tigers in Sri Lanka.