Came across this unknown species of a tiger: The Blue Tiger - found this information ...

Sporadic sightings of Blue Tigers have been coming out of the Fujian Province of China since the early 1900s. The most famous sighting of such an animal occurred in 1910 when Methodist missionary Harry R. Caldwell spied one at close range, which he first mistook for a man in blue clothing. After realizing what he was looking at he attempted to shoot the animal in order to verify it?s existence to the world, but noticed two children nearby. Not wanting to harm the children he repositioned himself, but by that time the tiger was gone. He described the tiger as having a deep maltese blue fur, instead of a tigers usual orange, with black strips in his book Blue Tiger.

Unsuccessful searches were carried out by Caldwell in search of the Blue Tigers, on which his son, John C. Caldwell, accompanied him. On several occasions John noted seeing maltese colored hairs along the mountain trails they were searching. It is thought that the blue in the tigers fur comes from the combined expression of two mutant gene forms ? dilute and non-agouti. The combination occasionally produces blue furred lynxes and bobcats, so why not tigers as well? To date the Blue Tiger remain one of the mystery cats of the world.

Look's like something LisaFrank did (the brand of binders and folders and the occasional stuffed animal with cute animals done in rainbow colors).

Also kinda reminds me of the liger. From what I've heard, those have been seen in the wild. The natives where Asia and Africa meet, or lions and tigers would meet, said things about giant cats. When settlers came, they wrote these off as fantasy.

Until one was born in a zoo!

Yup - the unition of the sperm/egg of a lion can be fertilized with/by a tigers sperm/egg and create a new species, a different species, the liger.

And i hear they're not sterile!

i hear about how they can mate with a tiger or a lion and produce more new things...but I'm waiting on them to start breeding ligers as a new species!

Not sure I understand? The only things that can be created as for new species from a tiger and a lion can be an offspring containing both genetical traits of that of a tiger and a lion.

Your not going to get 1/3 tiger, 1/3 lion, 1/3 kangaroo...Its only tiger, lion, liger

I mean i want them to wait until they have a male liger and a female liger and then put them in the same pen and wait until they have baby ligers.

If that's possible.

The genetic cause for "blue" fur is not a complete explanation. In both lynxes and other cats, it produces a grayish color, not really blue. The animal wouldn't so much have blue fur but gray fur which may look blue in certain lighting conditions. The main thing to question is what lighting conditions the sightings were made in.

Oh definitley, I don't see why not. They are the same species and as well as being in the same "cat" family (thats why the tiger and a lions egg/sperm could be united, because they are in some what way, related to one another). But baby ligers, male or female, wouldn't create new species.



But its clearly shown on the "blue tiger" that its fur color is blue.

As for ligers, the males are usually sterile but sometimes the females have been crossed back with lions or tigers to produce li-ligers (1/4 tiger), ti-ligers (1/4 lion) or li/ti tigons. They aren’t a real species though.



That is a piece of art, not a real animal.

I'm not sure why the product of two crossbreeds of the same cross couldn't be considered a new species. An artificial one, yes, but new nonetheless.

A species is defined as a population of animals which can't interbreed with other animals with ought producing sterile offspring (as I remember it anyway). These animals have a high instance of sterility, therefore they aren’t a real species, just hybrids.

this is ooooooooooooooooooooollllllllld news. incredibly ancient, no offense. i've just read about this so many times since i was like, 11 . there are also all black tigers too.

...not even if they managed to breed the fertile ones to the point of being fertile?

Tigers came in just about every color imaginable--white, black, orange, "tabby"/golden (what i saw of the picture was orangy with white stripes)...it just so happened that orange was the least desired color, so the others were hunted almost to extinction.

Hey, it's one of my favoroute animals combined with one of my favoute colours

Oh wow do I feel like an idiot...

I don't think so, but I'm not completely sure how it works scientifically (the classifacation).

Okay. Someone poke a zoo into trying this expirement so we can find out!

So basically if I understand clearly that the "Blue tiger" is any ordinary tiger, but do to the sun and the changing of pigment/fur color, it changes to a blue or a slight light grey color?

Basically. It might be gray but sort of look blue in certian lighting conditions, sort of like how you usually can't see a melanistic cat's spots too well but in certian lighting conditions you can see them really well.

Wow, interesting facts. So why is it still contained as a mystery?

And what about "Black Tigers" because I know the sun can't have that much of a strong dark effect on tigers.

i think i ran across so-called black tigers on a list of cryptids. i wasnt impressed because they do, or did, exist, but as i said before, the more "exotic" (by today's standards at least) were more desired in pelts, so they are the ones that arent around.

True -

Cool stuff

I think making cross breed animals like this is a very bad idea, if its possible after all.
Keeping species pure is the best.

There are loads of hybrids wandering around nowdays, usually because of mans interactions with nature. There are zebra/horse crosses, Lynx/Bobcats.. Loads!

Yeah, their was once a thread based on all these strange or common animals mixed together with pictures provided. Strange, but awesome.

"All ligers are presumed to be born sterile. This is not unusual for hybrids. Mules are the result of breeding a horse with a donkey and are also presumed to be sterile, although there is an occasional, extremely rare, exception."

http://www.sierrasafarizoo.com/animals/liger.htm

Awesome find! Those ligers look awesome. The stripes are so visible I love it!

It's probably considered a mystery by some because we can't really be certain what causes it if it is real. The "blue" gene may not be a sufficient explanation. Also, there is the remote chance that they represent a new species/subspecies or a unique inbreed population.

Black tigers would most likely be due to melanism or some other mutation. Basically the same thing that causes "black panthers", which are melanistic leopards or other cats. Again, probably not really a crptid and certainly possible genetically.

I thought black panthers were created naturally and genetically like that?

There are. Melanism is a natural mutation.

I want a blue tiger, I would breed it with a black one to make one black and blue

they would be so cute... but yeah lots of cryptids are probably just mutants or subspecies

People probably would think you beat the living crap out of it and had black and blues all over! Hahah! Just kidding...(*Dam, When will I ever get rid of the corny jokes I just pop out!*)

black tigers i can buy, but not blue. the explanation that theyre actually greyish, but appear blue because of a bluish sheen is just so..........1898. and all the blue tiger sightings in Indiana about seal the matter for me.

When were the sightings in Indiana?

early seventies, i think.

**WHOOSH*

did you hear that? that was the sound of M. Pantera whooshing off to look up blue indiana tigers.

I really don't have the time to look it up. I'm sure there's not much on it out there. Where'd you hear of it?

Subversive Element, i think, but i visit so many of those type sites i get them all confused.

Early seventeens.

This creatures old school then.

Well, if anyone has any info on it I'd like to hear it.

Hybrid big cats resource
http://members.aol.com/jshartwell/hybrid-bigcats2.html

Awesome link! The Servical kittens are especially adorable.

yep i thought it was cool
here's the parent directory
http://members.aol.com/jshartwell/hybrid-cats.htm

you'll find this in the mutant big cats section

not a myth after all

I still dont believe a tiger can be blue. Perhaps that tiger has been spray painted or had its fur dyed blue...if thats possible.

It's photoshop. Look in the http://members.aol.com/jshartwell/hybrid-bigcats2.html page for the original picture.

hey, but that looks pretty realistic!

Photoshop was my next guess.

those pictures on that site about the different tigers are pretty cool. but those of the blue tigers look a little fake to me. they look as if they were painted or something.


why don't you fill us in on what you know?