The rarest animal on the planet, there are only 30 individuals in the world

The animal is the result of a genetic mutation that changes its fur color. Worldwide, only about 30 individuals are kept in zoos.

Indian tour guide and wildlife photographer Gaurav Ramnarayanan set out on a photo hunt late in the afternoon of January 24, 2024.

The 25-year-old led a private tour to Kaziranga National Park , a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a 430-square-kilometer wildlife sanctuary in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

He came here with the desire to capture the most impressive photos of wildlife, including the world's largest population of one-horned rhinos and hundreds of colorful bird species.

However, while driving the jeep late in the afternoon, the group suddenly heard the call of a deer.

Gaurav Ramnarayanan turned a corner before stopping. About 700 meters away was a golden tiger.

"When I first saw this tiger, it didn't look like a normal Bengal tiger," said Gaurav Ramnarayanan, who has been guiding wildlife tours and photographing big cats since 2016 and founded The Wildside travel company. "With nearly 10 years of experience in wildlife photography and having seen enough tigers around the world, I knew right away this tiger was not normal."

His suspicions were confirmed when the photographer looked at the predator through the lens of his camera. With its yellow stripes, it was definitely a rare golden-tagged tiger.

"The tiger decided to come towards us, with no intention of attacking or harming us, but just continued on its path to mark its territory ," Gaurav Ramnarayanan said, adding that he had taken some amazing shots of the tiger when it was just 100m away from the jeep.

After posting the photo on social media, many people expressed surprise and delight at the tiger's rare golden fur.

According to scientists , golden tigers - also known as yellow-banded tigers or strawberry-yellow tigers - are not a subspecies. They are the result of a genetic mutation that changes their fur color . And although beautiful, their presence also has a dark side.

The golden tiger is not a subspecies but a genetic mutation that changes the color of its fur.

The golden tiger (or yellow tiger), like the white or snow tiger, is the result of a recessive genetic trait that appears as a mutation in the gene that produces color, said Uma Ramakrishnan, professor of ecology at India's National Centre for Biological Sciences.

In white tigers , this mutation inhibits coloration, while in yellow tigers, a mutation in the "wideband" gene prolongs the production of pheomelanin - a reddish-yellow pigment, during fur growth.

In the wild, fewer than one in 10,000 tiger cubs are born white, and yellow cubs are even rarer. That's why conservationists fear the appearance of these yellow tigers could be a warning of increasing inbreeding in isolated tiger populations.

Photographer Gaurav Ramnarayanan says these unusual coat patterns are commonly seen in captive tiger populations, which are often related.

According to Professor Uma Ramakrishnan, although the mutant coat color does not adversely affect the tiger's health, inbreeding can cause physical illnesses, as well as other genetic mutations that can weaken the tiger's defenses against disease.

According to some sources, there are an estimated 30 golden tigers in captivity around the world, and Kaziranga National Park (India) alone claims to own 4 golden tigers.