NORTHEAST: A rare Royal Bengal Tiger of golden morph was sighted at the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) in Assam, officials said on Thursday.

The Adult male tiger was spotted by a photographer who was visiting the park along with a local guide, KNP director Sonali Ghosh said.

The golden phenotype, as demonstrated by the Kaziranga Tiger, is a rare recessive trait and is currently being investigated through non-invasive scat sampling and DNA mapping at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, she said.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared a photograph of the tiger on X, and said, “Majestic Beauty! A rare golden tiger was recently spotted in Kaziranga National Park.” Ghosh said diverse forms of pigmentation phenotypes are known in many species of birds, butterflies, wild ungulates, domesticated animals, and also in humans.

Phenotypic variations are driven by evolutionary forces such as selection and random genetic drift, she pointed out.

Tigers have a unique striping pattern that is known to exist in several coat colour variants, Ghosh said.

The most famous being the pseudo-melanistic morph that is found in Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha, while the white tiger is a recessive trait and is now only confined to zoos, she added.