How and why Bengal cats were created
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The world's first official cat show, held at The Crystal Palace in London on 13 July 1871, gave birth to the modern Cat Fancies. The breeds shown were the Persian, Angoras, Manx, Abyssinian, the Royal Cats of Siam, and domestic cats crossed with wild cats (hybrids) as well as wild species. The 1875 cat show in Edinburgh included a special class for "Wild or Hybrid between Wild and Domestic Cats"; this was won by an Ocelot (purebred, not hybrid). The first displayed hybrids were based on Scottish Wildcats (Felis silvestris grampia) and Caffre Cats (the Egyptian variant of the North African Wildcat Felis silvestris lybica), not ALCs, but it shows that the first Cat Fancy happily embraced hybrids. The earliest mention of a confirmed ALC/domestic cross was in 1934 in a Belgian scientific journal, and in 1941 a Japanese cat publication printed an article about one that was kept as a pet. (As a point of interest, Jean Mill/Sugden, the person that was later to become the greatest influence of the development of the modern Bengal cat, submitted a term paper for her genetics class at UC Davis on the subject of cross breeding cats in 1946.)
A Bengal cat displaying spotting and rosetting pattern typical of the breed. Rosetted spots occur only on the back and sides, with stripes elsewhere. The 1960s was a period when many well known breeders, including Jean Sugden, produced ALC/domestic crosses, but records indicate that none of them took it past the F2 stage. Several zoos in Europe also produced a number of F1 ALC crosses. During this period there was an epidemic of feline leukemia virus and it became known that many wild cats seemed to have a natural immunity to the disease. As a result of this, Loyola University would start a research program in the 1970s to investigate if this natural immunity could be bred in or replicated.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s there was a great deal of activity with hybrids, but there was no significant effort to create an actual breed from them. A number of Cat clubs formed that oriented on hybrids and a few oriented specifically on something William Engler, a member of the Long Island Ocelot Club and a breeder, called a Bengal cat.
Club newsletters detailing the production of Bengal cats and Safaris started being published and members of these clubs bred some second and third generation Bengal cats. These were registered with the American Cat Fanciers Association (A.C.F.A.) in 1977 as experimental and were shown at several A.C.F.A. cat shows throughout the 1970s.
Around this time, Jean Sugden resurfaced again (although she had remarried and was now Jean Mill), and the following quote explains her increased interest in renewing her breeding efforts.
"..I deliberately crossed leopard cats with domestic cats for several important reasons. At that time, wild cats were being exploited for the fur market. Nursing female leopard cats defending their nests were shot for their pelts, and the cubs were shipped off to pet stores worldwide. Unsuspecting cat lovers bought them, unaware of the danger, their unpleasant elimination habits and the unsuitability of keeping wild cats as pets. Most of the wild kittens from this era ended up in zoos or escaped onto city streets. I hoped that by putting a leopard coat on a domestic cat, the pet trade could be safely satisfied. If fashionable women could be dissuaded from wearing furs that look like friends' pets, the diminished demand would result in less poaching of wild species. "
She contacted Dr. Willard Centerwall in Riverside who had produced a number of F1s using domestic tabbies at Loma Linda University for his Centerwall project into Feline Leukemia. Once the F1s had donated blood samples for his research, he needed homes for them. He gave Jean 4 hybrids. She later received another 5 hybrids from another source, but originally from the same Centerwall project.
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Contrary to popular belief, Jean did not use local domestics to create her first Bengal cats. She felt the ALC was a genetically superior animal and wished to avoid weakening this element. Around 1982, the Mills made a trip to India where a zoo curator showed them a feral Indian Mau. This was how the famous rosetted domestic called "Millwood Tory of Delhi" came to be found in virtually all Bengal pedigrees.
Credit also needs to be given at this point to Greg and Elizabeth Kent, who developed their own line of Bengal cats using ALCs and Egyptian Maus. This was a very successful line and many modern Bengal cats will find it in their pedigree.
Jean Mills and the Kents worked hard to popularize the breed, and when the public saw the result of their work, word spread quickly. As the number of breeders and owners grew, it led to the formation of T.I.C.A.'s Bengal Breed Section. T.I.C.A. adopted the first written breed standard in 1986 and the first Bengal Bulletin was published in Nov/Dec 1988.
Shortly after The International Bengal Cat Society (T.I.B.C.S.), the Bengal Breeders Alliance (B.B.A.) and the Authentic Bengal Cat League (A.B.C.L.) were formed. These organizations exist to promote good breeding practices, discourage unscrupulous breeders, and attempt to educate people about the Bengal breed.
The breed is now T.I.C.A.'s most popular registered breed but it is still not fully recognized by some modern cat fancies. This is somewhat ironic considering all modern Cat Fancies can trace their existence to the original show held in 1871, a show that welcomed hybrids.
Source: Wikipedia
Asian Leopard Cat
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On average, the Leopard Cat is as large as a Domestic Cat, but there are considerable regional differences: in Indonesia the average size is 45 cm (18 in), plus 20 cm (8 in) tail, while it is 60 cm/40 cm (24/16 in) in the Amur region. The shoulder height is 41 cm (16 in) and the weight is 4.5-6.8 kg (10-15 lbs), similar in size to a Domestic Cat. The fur color is also variable: it is yellow in the southern populations, but silver-grey in the northern ones. The chest and the lower part of the head are white. The Leopard Cat bears black markings that may be spotted or rosetted, depending on the subspecies. It has litters of 2 to 4 kittens and the gestation period can vary from 65 to 70 days.
The Leopard Cat has the widest geographic distribution of all felines. It can be found in forest areas throughout Indonesia, Philippines, Borneo, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, China and Taiwan. The Leopard Cat also can be found in Korea, India, and Pakistan. |
Their range of habitat is varied, and includes tropical forest, scrubland, pine forest, second-growth woodland, semi-desert, and agricultural regions, especially near water sources, and may be found at heights up to 3000 m.The Leopard Cat can climb trees skillfully. It is also able to swim, but will seldom do so. This cat is nocturnal, and during the day it spends its time in dens that may be hollow trees, cavities under roots, or caves. It spends time out during the day in areas where there are no humans. The Leopard Cat is solitary, except during breeding season. There is no fixed breeding period in the southern part of its range; in the colder northern parts it tends to breed around March or April, when the weather is nice enough to support newborn kittens. The estrus period lasts for 5-9 days. After a gestation period of 9-10 weeks (60-70 Days), two to three kittens are born in a den, where they remain until they are a month old. The eyes open at ten days old, and start to eat solid food at 23 days. If the kittens do not survive, the mother can come into heat again and have another litter that year.
Leopard Cats are carnivorous, and feed on variety of small prey, including mammals, lizards, amphibians, birds, and insects. In Northern region, the subspecies of Leopard Cat also eat hares. The diet is often supplemented with grass, eggs, poultry, and aquatic prey.
The female usually gives birth to two or three kittens after 60 to 70 days gestation. The kittens weigh about 75 to 130 g at birth and usually double their weight by age of two weeks; at five weeks, they are four times their birth weight. At the age of four weeks, the permanent canines appear, which coincides with their intake of solid food. Leopard Cats usually pair for life and raise their cubs together for about 7 to 10 months. Full maturity is reached at 18 months, but in captivity, the male can become ready to breed at 7 months, and the female at 10 months. Leopard Cats are said to be the most difficult to tame of all the Asian wild cats. The Asian Leopard Cat is often mated with domestic cats to produce hybrid offspring known as the Bengal cat.
Keeping a Leopard Cat as a pet is possible, though a license is required in most places. License requirements vary by location.
A Bengal cat, which is produced by breeding a Leopard Cat with a house cat (usually another Bengal cat), is permitted as a pet without a license. For the typical pet owner, a Bengal cat kept as a pet should be least four generations (F4) removed from the Leopard Cat. The so-called "foundation cats" from the first three filial generations of breeding (F1-F3) are usually reserved for breeding purposes or the specialty pet home environment.
Source: Wikipedia
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