Don't worry if you haven't, because black tigers are extremely rare.

So, imagine spotting one in the wild and you managed to snap a photo of it.

One-in-a-lifetime meeting

An amateur photographer in India recently came face to face with the elusive black tiger, and he had the photos to prove it.

According to a report by NDTV, Soumen Bajpayee was walking along an embankment during a visit to the Nandakanan Sanctuary in Odisha, India when he spotted the incredibly rare creature.

Soumen told the news portal that he was bird watching at the sanctuary when he caught sight of the tiger.

"While I was watching various birds and monkeys in the trees, I suddenly saw something which looked like a tiger but not like the usual tiger.

"Back then I didn't have any idea about melanistic tigers. It suddenly it appeared from the woods, stayed for few seconds and walked back into the trees," he was quoted as saying.

He managed to take several photos of the tiger before it made its way back into the trees.

Unlike normal tigers, this melanistic tiger has thicker and more prominent black stripes on its body.

The unique pattern on their bodies is due to a gene defect caused by inbreeding.

There are reportedly less than ten black tigers left in the world -- all believed to be residing in Odisha and nowhere else in the world -- so it is incredibly lucky of Bajpayee to bump into one in the wild.