For the first time ever, a rare “pale tiger” has been captured on film. Photographer Nilanjan Ray was traveling in southern India and saw a tiger walking up the road.
But when he and his crew continued driving up the stretch, he noticed a much rarer sight—a “white-looking tiger” on the hillside. Actually, it turned out much, much rarer than he could’ve known at the time.
The “pale tiger” is different than a white tiger, because it is believed to have a genetic mutation that causes color morphism.
Ray told Fox News that the pale tiger looked “rather curious (and cute) than scared or aggressive.” The pale tiger and the other orange tiger played hide and side with the crew before vanishing, but Ray was able to capture some pictures of the rare sighting.
Ray left the corporate world a couple of years ago to pursue photography, reports Fox. He and his crew were in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve in Tamil Nadu state. He released the images on his website.
The photographer alerted the forest department about the tiger and they assured him that the exact location would not be made public because of “of obvious crowding and poaching threats.”
Belinda Wright, the founder of the Wildlife Protection Society of India told The Guardian that it is the palest tiger she has ever seen on the record or heard about in literature.
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