Golden Tiger in Kaziranga National Park

• 30 Jan 2024

Source: TH

Why in News?

Recently, a wildlife photographer captured a rare golden tiger in Kaziranga National Park (KNP). 

What are the Key Facts About the Golden Tiger?

• Golden tigers (also known as golden tabby tigers) are a colour form, not a separate subspecies, like white and black tigers.
  • They are exceptionally rare in the wild and even rarer in captivity.
• Golden tiger spotted in KNP are a color variation of Bengal tigers causedby a presence of recessive gene called "wideband".

  • The wideband gene reduces melanin production during the cycle of hair growth. Thus, the agouti mutation (production of a protein that is usually expressed in the skin) is responsible for the blond or golden skin, while the orange stripes appear due to the ‘tabby’ mutation’.

    • The Tabby gene responsible for most tabby patterns (coat pattern) in domestic cats.

• Black and golden tigers basically exist as they both possess a recessive gene which is expressed due to the absence of a dominant gene to suppress it. When two individuals with dominant traits breed, recessive genes are masked, but when two individuals with recessive genes breed, the recessive gene is expressed and such is the case for these two tiger (Black and golden) mutants.

Kaziranga National Park

• Formed in 1908 KNP is located in the edge of the north eastern part of the country in the district of Golaghat and Nagoan in the state of Assam. It was declared as a National Park in 1974.
  • In the year 1985, the park was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and was declared as Tiger Reserve in 2006.
• It is the single largest undisturbed and representative area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain.
• KNP has mainly four types of vegetation’ like alluvial inundated grasslands, alluvial savanna woodlands, tropical moist mixed deciduous forests, and tropical semi-evergreen forests.
• It is the home to more than 2200 Indian one-horned rhinoceros, approximately 2/3^rd of their total world population.
• KNP harbours significant populations of other threatened species including tigers, elephants, wild water buffalo and bears as well as aquatic species including the Ganges River dolphin. It is an important area for migratory birds.

UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

Prelims

Q. Consider the following pairs: (2013)

National Park River flowing through Park

1. Corbett National Park : Ganga
2. Kaziranga National Park : Manas
3. Silent Valley National Park : Kaveri

Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?

(a) 1 and 2
(b) 3 only 
(c) 1 and 3 
(d) None

Ans: (d)

Q2. Among the following Tiger Reserves, which one has the largest area under “Critical Tiger Habitat”? (2020)

(a) Corbett
(b) Ranthambore
(c) Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam 
(d) Sundarbans

Ans: C

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Mains

Q: “Policy contradictions among various competing sectors and stakeholders have resulted in inadequate ‘protection and prevention of degradation’ to environment.” Comment with relevant illustrations. (2018)