Striped Animals.

There are reports of mysterious large striped cats from many location, unlike any known local wildlife. One prominent example is the Australian "Queensland Tiger". Others include the Mngwa (Tanzania) and Maltese tiger (China)

Cheetah: King

Cheetahs with stripes are referred to as "king cheetahs" (shown right). They were once consider a separate species but now recognized as a color morph within the same species.

First sighted in 1926, king cheetah striping is a recessive allele. Thus it must be inherited from both parents to be expressed in the offspring, and remains infrequent in most populations.

Several king cheetahs are known to live at the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Preserve.

Brindle coats are also shown by some cattle, for example Icelandic cattle and Texas longhorns. Another example of unknown breed are shown here and here.

Other breeds have a single white stripe around their middle, and are referred to as "belted".

Ancestral horse species may have had stripes., and in some ancient breeds such as a Sorraia, stripes may sometimes occur on the legs. Striping often appears in the coats or foals but disappears as they grow.

The archaic pattern of a grey-brown body with stripes on the legs is seen in more domesticated breeds with dun coloring and is sometimes called 'dun factor striping'.

Some coat patterns can also produce distinct striped markings in rare cases. One of these is the brindle pattern such as shown by the horse shown right. Brindle patterns can form in various color combinations such as: black on white. But to be referred to as brindling one of the colors involved must be black.

If the pattern is made up of white hair it is referred to as 'roan striping'. These stripes may appear over the ribs or around the base of the tail in a pattern of black and white called 'skunk tail'.

In horses the leopard complex is reponsible for a range of coat patterns, sometimes including striped hooves along with a spotted coat. This mutation is associated with vision disorders.

Some consider a striped hoof to be strong than one of a normal color, but--structural speaking--there is no real difference between the two.

Various mutations are known to cause a striped pattern on the coat of a mouse, including:

• The Tigrou mutation, found only in females.
• Mfs, a mutation of chromosome 13.
• Pewter 3 Jackson, which is associated with severe health problems.

The genetic basis for striping in sheep is not known and it s not a trait with any economic value. However a sponataneous mutant striped sheep arose in Canberra Australia in 1982 and was used to develop a herd with this trait.

While most tigers have stripes, some have more than others. In 'double-striped' tigers most of the stripes divide into two strands. This condition is so rare that no real photographs of specimens exist, only illustrations and conceptual (manipulated) photographs.

Tiger: Melanistic

Tigers also sometimes show extra-wide stripes as a result of melanism. In 2010 a melanistic mother and two cubs were reported in the Similipal National Park in India.

Humans can possess striped skin due to normal Blaschko's lines being revealed by a range of conditions such as mosaicism.

The striped pelt shown right turned out to be a domestic dogs, painted to look (somewhat) like a tiger.