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The tiger (Panthera tigris) is the world’s largest cat and is one of the most threatened with extinction. As recently as 100 years ago, there were as many as 100,000 wild tigers living in Asia. Today, fewer than 3,200 remain. Six subspecies of tigers continue to persist, but three have gone extinct in the last 80 years.

The existing subspecies are the Bengal, Indochinese, Sumatran, Amur, Malayan, and the South-China subspecies (although no signs of the South-China subspecies have been recorded in the wild in the last 10 years).

The three extinct subspecies include the Javan (last recorded in the 1970's), Caspian (lost in the 1950's) and the Bali subspecies (lost in the 1930's).

Wild tigers are still found in 13 countries in Asia: India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia (Sumatra), Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, China and Russia. However, they are extinct in 11 countries and no longer live in 93% of their historic range.

Tigers are currently listed as “Endangered” on the International Union of the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Ramesh Babu (born Ramesh Babu Ghattamaneni on 13 October 1965) better known as Ramesh Babu is an Indian film actor and film producer best known for his work in Telugu cinema. Born to actor Krishna, Ramesh Babu made his on screen debut with the film Needa in 1979. He acted in over 15 films before retiring from acting in 1997. In 2004, he became a producer and established Krishna Productions Private Ltd, a film production company named after his father. He produced films like Arjun and Athidhi, both of which had his brother Mahesh Babu in leading role. He recently acted as a presenter for 2011 successful film Dookudu.A black tiger is a rare colour variant of the tiger and is not a distinct species or geographic subspecies. There are reports and one painting (now lost) of pure black non-striped tigers (true melanistic tigers). Most black mammals are due to the non-agouti mutation. Agouti refers to the ticking of each individual hair. In certain light, the pattern still shows up because the background color is less dense than the colour of the markings.

So-called 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. 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. A discussion of black tigers was presented by British cryptozoologist Dr Karl Shuker in his book Mystery Cats of the World.