At the Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Tamil Nadu, India, a recently-born white tiger cub has been attracting quite a crowd of zoo goers… because its fur is turning black.
The cub’s two siblings have retained their usual white coloration, but this little big kitteh has gradually started to lose its striped pattern for reasons zoo officials think are potentially genetic.
But even without its stripes, the cub remains healthy and adorable, and is fast becoming the main attraction at Arignar.
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-94wNw88f65Rhk.gif?labels=MTVN%20Digital%20Tribes\")
Dam-it! The paint is wearing off!
reminds me of an old prophecy I once heard.
With the crappy food they have there, I’m surprised it’s not turning yellow.
(If you don’t understand – don’t ask.)
It could be shoe polish applied to increase interest.
I know of a German Shorthaired pointer this happened to. He went from white with liver spotting as a pup to an almost pure liver by the age of 1 1/2. It happens.
That’s different — it’s not unheard of for youth-adult color changes (see: Dalmations, Lipizzans), and almost all liver isn’t entirely shocking for a pointer, or at least dogs in general, but all black is an entirely new sort of mutation in this species.
0:39: Did that tiger just quack?
Actually this is most likely caused by a pigmentation disorder that I can’t remember the name of but it’s basically the reverse of albinism.
Melanistic-ism, maybe? -brick’d-
Melanism. Not before seen in any breed of tiger, although some have pseudo-melanism, or abundism, where they have lots more stripes than usual, and appear almost all balck.
so hell be fine just not as good a job as his brothers
so he’ll be fine just not as good a job as his brothers