India's only Golden Tiger spotted in Kaziranga National Park: All you need to know
On July 11, an IFS officer, Parveen Kaswan took to twitter to share the photo of a very rare 'Golden Tiger'. Within minutes the photograph of the tigress clicked by Mayuresh Hendre went viral. The tigress was spotted at Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The golden tigress is named-- Kazi 106 F and is believed to be the only recorded individual in the 21st century.
Do you know in #India we have a Golden #Tiger also. Only documentation of such big cat in 21st century on planet. This by Mayuresh Hendre. Look at this beauty. pic.twitter.com/8kiOy5fZQI
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) July 10, 2020
While the tigress has delighted the people on social media, the authorities at the Kaziranga National Park stated that the finding is not a cause for celebration, instead, it is an indication to all of us to start thinking about better connectivity among the fragmented populations of tigers to prevent inbreeding-- one of the serious problems of population decline.
In 2014, a tigress with lighter yellowish skin and lighter black stripes with more whitish expressions on abdominal and facial regions was photographed. In 2015, she was photographed for one more time. In 2016, the same tigress was photographed again, but this time with another individual. No conclusion could be drawn about the other individual (whether it was her cub or mate) due to the poor quality of the photograph.
In a report concluded by Rabindra Sharma, wildlife expert and research officer, colour aberrations are not common phenomena and a few incidents from the past have been recorded. In 2008, during camera trapping, a black tiger was spotted in the jungles of Similipal Tiger Reserve.
As per the report, the skin of the tigers is orange-yellow having black stripes and whitish abdominal region. 'Agouti Genes' control the yellowish part of their alleles while the 'Tabby Genes' control the black stripes and their alleles. The suppression of any of these genes leads to colour variation in the tigers.
Signalling Protein- ASIP is responsible for melanin pigmentation in mammals. The Agouti Genes interact with these pigmentation cells and produce yellow to red or brown to black expression. Thus, we are able to spotlight and dark coloured bands in animals.
The Agouti Genes locus is found on chromosome 2 and encodes a 131 amino acid protein which signals the distribution of melanin pigments in epithelial melanocytes, located at the base of hair follicles.
The biological reason for colour aberration may be due to excessive inbreeding caused by habitat destruction and loss of connectivity. The recessive genes are showing up due to inbreeding within a fragmented population.
Recent research published by the Cardiff University and NCBS (National Center for Biological Sciences) state that 93% of the tiger DNA variants from the British period are no longer present in the current tiger population.
The report ended on a note stating that we must start pondering to come up with a solution to prevent inbreeding.
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