Genuine jet-black panther in a video in a tiger reserve

People are fascinated with the black panther so when you have the opportunity to see a genuine jet-black panther crossing a dusty road in the Pench Tiger Reserve in India it’s worth looking at. This is a melanistic leopard which shares territory with the Bengal tiger in this reserve. Although the leopard will avoid …

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Ginger tabby with quadruple-kinked, short tail and a great character

Short kinked tail of 'Crookie'

I received an email from Heather about her cat’s short, quadruple-kinked tail and as there is interesting domestic cat history about kinked and shortened tails, I thought it would be nice to discuss it! Here is Heather’s email. She lives with a rare cat in the USA. They are far more common in the …

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Sri Lankan leopard with unique mutated coat squares up to a sloth bear

Leopard with mutated coat squares up to sloth bear

The very unusual coat of this leopard has not been mentioned in the caption to the video in which it squares up to a sloth bear in a tense confrontation. The footage was captured in Kumana National Park on Sri Lanka’s east coast. Below I present a standard Sri Lankan female leopard and below …

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Is your cat genetically predisposed to putting on weight?

Mutated MC4R gene implicated in feline obesity

You don’t want to make this an excuse for overfeeding and under-exercising your cat, but some feline friends are going to be putting on weight because of polymorphism of the feline MC4R gene. Although, it is generally agreed that the normal reason for weight gain in domestic cats is under activity and overfeeding. This …

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Longhaired American Bobtail – genes, appearance and Darwin!

American Bobtail Fergie

Longhaired American Bobtail – photo copyright Helmi Flick Tailless cats have gained in popularity but they do not occupy the top eschalots of the cat fancy. When once there was the Japanese Bobtail there is now the Kurilian Bobtail as well (is this breed linked to the Japanese Bobtail?). The American Bobtail was the first …

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Oh, my goodness! The biggest polydactyl feet I’ve ever seen.

Picture of the biggest polydactyl, domestic cat feet you'll see

The photographer calls them ‘bonus beans’. And in case you’ve never heard it, the paw pads of domestic cats are called ‘beans’, particularly on polydactyl feet. This is a very organised and impressive set of beans. His feet remind me of the feet of lynx wild cats. There is a link to polydactylism and …

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Rare black tigers – pseudo-melanistic tigers – photographed in India

Black tiger

NEWS AND COMMENT – EASTERN INDIA: An amateur photographer, Satya Swagat, 23, had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time with this camera. He was in the Nandankanan National Park in eastern India. Satya Swagat said that he got goosebumps when he first saw them. He was about …

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Picture: Sphynx cat with huge muscles

Sphynx cat with big muscles

It looks like this bicolor Sphynx cat has been quietly body building since he was a kitten. He is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the cat world. And the hairlessness highlights his condition. The Reddit title is: “House cat suffering from Myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy – a rare condition that causes muscles to grow excessively large”. …

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