BLACK TIGERS
Why in News?:
Recently, the death of a Rare Black Tiger was reported in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha.
Simlipal has the world's highest rate of black tiger sightings in the world.
The death can have a big impact on the Population of Tiger. The population of black tigers is very limited, and the death of a male tiger will affect the breeding of tigers in the region.
Black Tigers: Black Tigers are a rare colour variant of the Bengal tiger and are not a distinct species or geographic subspecies.
The coat colouration and patterning that make the wild cats appear dark boil down to a single mutation in the Transmembrane Aminopeptidase Q (Taqpep) gene.
Pseudo Melanistic:
The abnormally dark or black coat in such tigers is termed pseudo melanistic or false coloured.
Melanistic refers to having very dark skin/hair due to higher-than-normal level of the pigment (substance that gives pigmentation to skin/hair is called melanin).
There is a high probability (about 60%) that the tiger will have the mutant gene, if randomly selected from Similipal.
