The Tiger

Abundism is a variant of pigmentation in the cat's coat, identifiable by enlarged stripes covering a large part of the body of the tiger making it almost appear melanistic (black). Some refer to it as pseudomelanism.  It is due to a spontaneous genetic mutation, in the same that white tigers at one time popped up in the wild decades ago until they were all shot. White tigers are also due to a genetic mutation. Genes don't always replicate perfectly, and you get mutations. Many of the cat breeds are based on genetic mutations which give the cats and unusual anatomical feature such as hairlessness or a short tail out of which a breed can be created with selective breeding. Abundism in a tiger cub in the wild. Image: Screenshot. Here is a little video of a tiger cub with abundism. I guess the word 'abundism' (which sounds very old fashioned) is a reference to the 'abundance' of the pigment called melanin in the hair strands creating the black appearance. I think I ...

Melanism is well known in wild cats. Servals are not uncommonly melanistic on the high plains and you can see a melanistic Geoffroy's cat on this page with pictures of a melanistic Chausie , a wildcat hybrid. On this page you can see a melanistic F4 Savannah cat. The " black panther " is in fact a large melanistic wild cat. Mel and Fiona Sunquist in Wild Cats Of The World (published 2002) say that there are reports of black tigers. But they also say that there are no skins or specimens of black tigers in museums etc.. They refer to three records of black tigers. They also refer to these tigers as "melanistic" while the Wikipedia authors call the process that causes a tiger to become black as pseudo-melanism. They argue that the black tiger is black because by force of a genetic mutation the black stripes of the tiger merge together. If a cat is genuinely melanistic the background colour (to the black stripes) becomes charcoal black (and sometimes brown) due ...