Kaziranga's Golden Tiger dilemma explained: Why the rare cat, inbreeding irk India's wildlife experts

WHAT IS A GOLDEN TIGER?: A golden tiger, also called tabby tiger or strawberry tiger, is a tiger with a colour variation caused by a recessive gene. They characterise blonde or pale-golden colour and reddish stripes in place of black like in normal tigers. (Photo | Wikipedia, Dave Pape)

ARE THEY SEPERATE SPECIES OF THE CAT FAMILY?: No. Just like white tigers and black tigers, they aren't a separate subspecies of the tiger family as they look different only due to genetic reasons. Their rare skin tone is a result of excessive inbreeding. IN PIC: Three Bengal tiger cubs, one white, one golden and one yellow, play in their cage. (Photo | AFP)

WHAT IS INBREEDING?: Inbreeding is defined as the probability of two alleles in an individual being identical by descent, and is normally the result of mating related individuals, It can increase the chances of offspring being affected by deleterious or recessive traits. IN PIC: The only wild melanistic tiger documentation in world from current times photographed in Odisha. (Photo | Twitter@ParveenKaswan)

WHAT CAUSED THE RECENT FUSS?: From the flood-hit Kaziranga National Park appeared a tigress with golden fur. The picture of Kazi 106-F, as the female tiger is known, went viral on social media. Soon after, the national park authorities put out a note stating that there were four tigers with such colour similarities in the tiger reserve. (Photo | Twitter)

WHY ARE THEY BORN DIFFERENT?: The yellow skin of tigers is controlled by a set of ‘agouti genes’ while the black stripes are controlled by ‘tabby genes’ and their alleles. Suppression of any of these genes may lead to colour variation in a tiger. 'Agouti genes interacts with the pigment cells to produce yellow to red or brown to black expression. This interaction is responsible for making distinct light and dark bands in the hairs of animals such as the agouti here same is happening in our tigress - Kazi 106 F,” New18 reported Kaziranga’s research officer Rabindra Sharma as saying. (Photo | Twitter)

WHY ARE EXPERTS UNHAPPY?: Sharma was quick to put the ‘social media star’ hype around Kazi 106-F in perspective by pointing out that excessive inbreeding could be the biological reason behind colour aberration, which he said is not exactly a matter of celebration. (Photo | Twitter)

WHAT LEADS TO ANIMAL INBREEDING?: Tigers resort to inbreeding when their population is almost islanded without connectivity to other landscapes, which is mainly caused by habitat loss and destruction of corridors. (Photo | AFP)

A joint study by the National Centre for Biological Sciences and Cardiff University had flagged the concern that Indian tigers no longer possess 93% of their genetic variation. IN PIC: Royal Bengal Tiger Karan with white tigress Nirbhaya at Delhi zoo (File Photo | EPS)

WHAT ARE EXPERTS SAYING?: “Generally at three to four years, a female gets sexual maturity and gives birth. Therefore, she might have given birth or ready to give birth to new babies. It will be very interesting to observe whether her faulty gene will be carried to her successors or not!,' Sharma said. (Photo | Wikipedia, Dave Pape)