A black tiger is a rare colour variant of the tiger, and is not a distinct species or geographic subspecies.
Description
There are reports and one painting of pure black non-striped tigers (true melanistic tigers). Most black mammals are due to the non-agouti mutation. Agouti refers to the ticking of each individual hair. In certain light, the pattern still shows up because the background color is less dense than the colour of the markings.
So-called black tigers are due to pseudo-melanism. Pseudo-melanistic tigers have thick stripes so close together that the tawny background is barely visible between stripes. In Simlipal National Park, 37% of the tiger population has this condition, which has been linked to isolation and inbreeding.
Sightings of black tigers (1772–1895) In 1773, while in the service of British East India Company in Kerala, southwest India, artist James Forbes painted a watercolor of a black tiger shot a few months earlier by the poachers. The painting is in Forbes' collections at Yale (Volume 2, f. 273). Forbes' description of it survives:I have also the opportunity of adding the portrait of an extraordinary Tyger [sic], shot a few months ago by the Nairs in this neighborhood, and presented to the chief as a great curiosity. It was entirely black yet striped in the manner of the Royal-Tyger [sic], with shades of a still darker hue, like the richest black, glossed with purple. My pencil is very deficient in displaying these mingled tints; nor do I know how to describe them better than by the difference you would observe in a black cloth variegated with shades of a rich velvet.
This corresponds to ghost mark as similar to those on black panthers.
A black tiger from the East Indies was exhibited in the Tower of London menagerie; however, it was more likely to have been a black leopard. The 1786 book, "Sophie in London" records Sophie's impressions of this cat: "The all-black tiger, which Mr. Hastings brought with him from the East Indies is most handsome, but his tigery glance is horrible." The Observer newspaper on 27 January 1844 records a black tiger (again, probably a black leopard) intended as a present for Napoleon from the King of Java. This tiger was displayed at Kendrick's menagerie in Piccadilly, London.
In March 1846, the naturalist C.T. Buckland reported a black tiger in the Chittagong Hills (now in Bangladesh) where it was raiding cattle. It was shot with a poisoned arrow and its body was later discovered but it was too decomposed to skin. Buckland's account for The Field, which was printed in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (JBNHS) during 1889, documented the case of a black tiger killed at Chittagong. The report is even more dubious because over 40 years had elapsed between the actual event and the report; all of the party members that could have corroborated his story had died.
In September 1895, a very clear sighting of a supposed black tiger was made by Colonel S. Capper using a hunter's telescope; the tiger disappeared into the jungle. The presence of black leopards in the area and the difficulty of accurately judging size makes this a dubious report though. The various accounts of black tiger sightings were detailed in "The Wildlife of India" by E.P. Gee.
Sightings (1913–1972) In 1913, A. T. Hauxwell fired at an apparent black tiger near Bhamo, in Burma, but it escaped. He reported this in the JBNHS.
A jet-black tiger with no visible markings was apparently shot in Assam, India in 1915; unlike most melanistic big cats, which have shadowy patterns visible from certain angles, this jet black individual had no appearance of striping. A dead black tiger was reported south of Assam in 1928, but the skin was too decayed to be saved. Another one from around the same date was reported in the Central Provinces and had dark brown coats with black markings. T. Banjie's report "Tigers in China " (1983) alleged several sightings of black tigers in the Dongning area of China. Sightings occurred in 1951, 1953 and 1957 and a black tiger was allegedly captured in 1972. Black tigers are also part of Vietnamese legend. The depletion of tigers in those regions may have eliminated the carriers of genes for melanism and pseudo-melanism. A "black tiger" shot in Manipur state in the early 1930s was actually an Asian black bear, but was called a black tiger to take advantage of the bounty offered for such creatures. In 1936, a black tiger captured in Dibrugarh turned out to be a black leopard, but a skin with chocolate brown background and black stripes was reported in the same year in the Central Provinces.
