Tyger Tyger

Tyger Tyger burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake - The Tyger

In China, the tiger, not the lion, is thought to be the king of the beasts. Tigers are considered savage creatures, man killers, cruel and ferocious. Some legends also say the tiger is a shapeshifter. Another legend suggests that tigers are actually humans who have the ability to take on this shape when hunting.

When picturing the tiger, most people see a large yellow or orange animal with distinctive black stripes. This is the most familiar coloration, but tigers come in a variety of colors. In the early 1900s, white tigers were seen, and several killed. Much debate is carried on about the origins of the white tiger. Are these animals another species of tiger? Are they mutants? Aberrations? Or are they albinos? All of these answers may be true in different cases, but there is no doubt white tigers do exist. The most well-known white tiger is Mohan, a cub captured in 1951 in India.

Black tigers (and many other animals) have a dark pigmentation called melanin. Usually animals with this darker coloring retain the evidence of their stripes, although they are, of course, not as prominent as those of lighter colored beasts.

Tigers come in varying shades of orange. Red tigers and brown tigers also exist. In fact, there are fourteen possible color combinations. Golden tabbies are beautiful, but rare aberrations.

The final species I want to discuss may really exist, or it may be only a myth. In south-eastern China, there is said to exist the extremely rare Maltese tiger. This tiger is said to be of a deep Maltese blue changing to an even deeper blue on the belly. The stripes, as on an orange tiger, were black.

Tigers - definitely beautiful beasts whether orange, white -- or blue. They are creatures born to become myths and legends. Do blue tigers really exist? Probably. Are they shapeshifters? Possibly.

For more information and pictures of the rare Maltese tiger, visit the Lair Web. You'll find links to the other colors if you scroll to the bottom of the page.

Tyger Tyger burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake - The Tyger

Read About Tigers: Track of the Tiger : Legend and Lore of...

Watch a tiger video: National Geographic's Tigers of the Snow