The Maltese tiger, or blue tiger, is a sub species coloration morph of a tiger

Tiger

The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...

, reported mostly in the Fujian Province of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. It is said to have bluish fur with dark grey stripes. Most of the Maltese tigers reported have been of the South Chinese

South China Tiger

The South China tiger is a tiger subspecies that originated in southern China and northern Indochina and has been classified as critically endangered by IUCN since 1996 as it is possibly extinct in the wild....

 subspecies. The South Chinese tiger today is critically endangered, and the "blue" allele

Allele

An allele is one of two or more forms of a gene or a genetic locus . "Allel" is an abbreviation of allelomorph. Sometimes, different alleles can result in different observable phenotypic traits, such as different pigmentation...

s may be wholly extinct. Blue tigers have also been reported in Korea, home of Siberian tigers.

The term "Maltese

Maltese cat

Maltese cat is a name that is often given to any cat whose fur is either completely, or primarily, gray or blue and is of indeterminate breed. Many cats with such colouration are supposedly present on the island of Malta, which may have given rise to the use of the adjective in this context...

" comes from domestic cat terminology for blue

Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...

 fur, and refers to the slate grey coloration.