The Maltese blue tiger is almost a mythical creature, because, apart from eyewitness accounts, there is no evidence of its existence. Until today, people have not been able to find this animal either dead or alive, not even photographs. Although from time to time there are reports from the Chinese province of Fujian, as well as from Korea and Burma about the appearance of a tiger. Despite its name, the animal has nothing to do with Malta. It's all about the color of his coat. According to eyewitness accounts, the predator has dark gray stripes with bluish fur.
It just so happened that domestic cats of a bluish-gray hue are called Maltese, because there are a lot of them on the island. For the first time, the world learned about an unusual predator from the missionary and hunter Harry R. Caldwell. An American killed ten large cats during his trip to China, but the Maltese blue tiger did not succumb to him, but only teased and disappeared, like a ghostly vision. According to Caldwell, he saw an animal in the vicinity of Fuzhou. At first he mistook him for a leaning peasant in blue clothes, but then he saw the head of a tiger. The hunter could not immediately shoot, because the children were running nearby, and while he was trying on and changing his position, the predator ran away.
The Maltese blue tiger was also found by locals. The Chinese claimed that "black devils" really roam the villages nearby. Caldwell repeatedly with his son organized expeditions to search for this mysterious animal, they even managed to find shreds of his hair on the branches of bushes, but nothing more. The Maltese tiger has a very beautiful coat. The main color is bluish-gray, on the belly it is a little lighter, against this background black stripes are very clearly visible.
Most likely, this is a subspecies of the South Chinese tiger, which is on the verge of extinction. It is likely that individuals with a similar color could already completely disappear from the face of the earth, although from time to time there are reports of their appearance. Many skeptics do not believe that the Maltese blue tiger exists, because there is no evidence. Caldwell cannot be called a liar, but there are still no photographs or expert evidence. Some researchers believe that people could perceive as a Maltese ordinary yellow tiger, falling out in the mud.
The fact of the existence of such an animal cannot be openly denied. The Maltese blue tiger can be obtained through a combination of the gene for degeneration and non-agouti. Of course, this is very difficult, since such predators would be almost black or gray with subtle stripes. However, nothing is impossible in nature, because black big cats were also considered a fiction and a myth for a long time until their skin was discovered. Animal melanists exist, one of them may be the Maltese tiger.
Nobody has managed to take a photo of the predator, but it must be recognized that in some isolated populations, genetic drift can provoke an abnormal coat color. If the mutation does not adversely affect the development of the animal, then the species can spread quite quickly. If the Maltese tigers exist, then there are no more than three dozen.
