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'Transsexual' tiger? Carcass in Kerala may be a rare find


Rarely does a tiger carcass excite wildlife scientists and enthusiasts. But then it's rare that proof of transsexualism is found in the world of big cats — and the first time it has been seen in India. 

Forest officials in Kerala's south Wayanad were on routine patrol when they came across a tiger carcass with severe injuries on its forelimbs on the morning of April 18. "Prima facie, it seemed a case of infighting. During autopsy, it was found that the tiger had testicles without any origin of penis, triggering confusion over its sex," said south Wayanad DFO P Dhanesh Kumar, adding that their veterinarian, Arun Sekaria is conducting further tests. 

Sekaria confirmed to Times Of India that he had conducted the autopsy. "At the moment, we have found signs of both sexes on the carcass. But further tests, like genotyping, hormonal profiling and histopathology, need to be done to come to a conclusion," he said, adding that a rudimentary uterus without ovaries, too, was found in the tiger. There were no external sexual organs and the tiger could be a hermaphrodite - an extremely rare condition in vertebrates in which an animal has both male and female reproductive organs. 

While genotyping is the process of determining differences in genetic make-up by examining DNA sequence, hormonal profiling is a test on the animal's blood samples to find out whether it has male or female hormones. 

Zoologist Pulak Lahiri said the success of the tests depend on how old the carcass was. "Such aberrations are not unusual in the animal kingdom," he said. Echoing his view Dr NVK Ashraf of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) said such things can happen, but tests need to be done very carefully before coming to any conclusion. Tests on sex chromosome are vital in this case, Sekaria said. 

Wildlife Protection Society of India's executive director Belinda Wright said: "It's extraordinary, since I have never heard of something like this in tigers before." 

Though this is a unique case, homosexual behaviour has been seen and researched in the animal kingdom. As of 1999, nearly 1,500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms, have been observed engaging in same-sex behaviour and this is well documented in about 500 species. 

There were no external sexual %organs in the south Wayanad tiger, whose carcass was found on April 18. The big cat could be a %hermaphrodite - an extremely rare condition in vertebrates in which an animal has both male and female reproductive organs. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/...132792.cms
 

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