Occasionally reported but never officially documented, the Blue or “Maltese” Tiger is said to be an exceedingly rare mutation of the South Chinese or Amur Tiger – themselves critically endangered.
Sometimes called Maltese Tigers after silver-gray cats found on the island of Malta, Blue Tigers display striped fur in white, black and misty gray, or at least they do in these artist’s conceptions.

“The markings of the beast are strikingly beautiful. The ground color is of a delicate shade of maltese, changing into light gray-blue on the underparts. The stripes are well defined and like those of the ordinary yellow tiger.” So wrote American missionary and big game hunter Harry Caldwell after supposedly witnessing a Blue Tiger near the city of Fuzhou, China. Caldwell discusses his search for the legendary feline in his 1924 book, Blue Tiger.

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