Rare black tiger caught on camera at Similipal: Watch video

It's a rare sighting. A black tiger was caught on camera marking its territory in Odisha's Similipal Tiger Reserve.

The black tiger was seen in the 16-second video walking up to a tree, reaching up full stretch with its front paws and clawing the bark. It then slowly walks out of frame.

The video was tweeted by IFS officer Susanta Nanda, saying: "Tigers are symbol of sustainability of India’s forests…Sharing an interesting clip of a rare melanistic tiger marking its territory on international Tigers day. From a Tiger Reserve poised for recovery of an isolated source population with a very unique gene pool."

Later another IFS officer, Parveen Kaswan shared the video pointing out that black tigers were first officially discovered in STR in 2007. They came about through inbreeding, and belong to a unique gene pool.

Black tigers, also called pseudo-melanistic tigers, have thick black stripes close together with the tawny background barely visible in between. They are not a distinct species or subspecies.