Watch: Black tiger marks its territory in Odisha's Similipal National Park

New Delhi, July 31: In a rare sighting from Odisha's Similipal National Park, a black tiger was seen marking its territory. In a 15-second video posted on Twitter, the tiger was seen leaving scratch marks on a tree.

"Sharing an interesting clip of a rare melanistic tiger marking its territory on international Tigers day", tweeted Indian Forest Service Officer Susanta Nanda.

"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. Kudos," the forest officer tweeted.

A black tiger is a rare colour variant of the tiger, and is not a distinct species or geographic subspecies.

The black tigers are due to pseudo-melanism. Pseudo-melanistic tigers have thick stripes so close together that the tawny background is barely visible between stripes. Pseudo-melanistic tigers exist and can be seen in the wild and in zoos.

Such tigers are said to be getting more common due to inbreeding. They are also said to be smaller than normal tigers, perhaps also due to inbreeding or because large black leopards are misidentified as black tigers.