The cat with the most pronounced ‘ticked’ coat

The cat with the most pronounced ‘ticked coat’ is the jaguarundi, a small wild cat species. The picture of a jaguarundi on this page illustrates this extraordinarily ticked coat.

The cat fancy (domestic cat breeders) use the term ‘ticked’ to describe an agouti coat in which each hair strand has color banding with black, brown and yellow. It is a tabby coat with little in the way of the usual tabby cat dark markings. You get a salt and pepper appearance.

The domestic cat breed which is defined by its ticked coat is the Abyssinian and the long-haired variant the Somali.

Of the wild cat species the jungle cat also has a ticked coat but less strikingly ticked than the jaguarundi.

It is interesting that this type of tabby coat is so clearly present on domestic and wild cats.

Weasel or Cat?

The jaguarundi is a strange looking cat. It looks more like a weasel than a cat. There were difficulties in classifying it. Taxonomists weren’t sure.