Comments on: “Black Tiger” Found In Sri Lanka

By: kittenz

kittenz — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:48:58 +0000

wisaaka,

Officially, no, there are no tigers in Sri Lanka.

By: wisaaka

wisaaka — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:58:32 +0000

“… 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?

By: ratscatsangels1000

ratscatsangels1000 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:09:23 +0000

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.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:40:49 +0000

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.

By: cliffhanger042002

cliffhanger042002 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:20:50 +0000

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.

By: Daniel-san

Daniel-san — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:45:09 +0000

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.

By: raisinsofwrath

raisinsofwrath — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:33:59 +0000

Yea, I also got the impression that it’s just called “tiger” to distinguish it and not because they think it’s a tiger.

By: theprof

theprof — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:44:23 +0000

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!

By: CryptidHuntr

CryptidHuntr — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:50:55 +0000

Its a leopard.Not a tiger.You can see the sppots on the first pic.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:03:52 +0000

I agree it is almost certainly a leopard.
Great find, Loren…
It’s a shame it’s dead…:(