The wiki.answers page is absurd. And Google.com places it very near the top at the date of this post. Wiki.answers is an appalling website. They say: if there are 75 black cats out of 3000 the percentage is this….well of course, that is straight math. But it does not in any shape or form answer the question.
Perhaps there is no point is trying to work out the percentage of black cats. However, I think there is some point in it.
The truth is we don’t know what percentage of cats are black. We know the percentage, very roughly, by observation ourselves. We don’t know accurately, however, because there has been no survey or genetic calculations as to probability.
Based on my observations black cats are fairly commonplace. They are not as commonplace as tabby cats, tabby and white cats or probably bicolor cats. I am thinking on a worldwide basis here not just the USA or Europe etc.
On a worldwide basis I would estimate that the percentage of black cats is somewhere around 18% (1 in 5.5) . I would be happy to be corrected however.
Update: this figure could be too low. Correction: I updated it to around 18% on the back of Dr Brashaw who says white cats are rare at around 3% of non-pedigree cat population and black cats are commonplace. Some people say that black cats are “very common”. I disagree. As I mentioned, tabbies are more common and bicolours are as common. I make this judgement having seen lots of photographs of cats across the internet.
Let’s remember that we are talking about domesticated random bred, stray, semi-feral and feral cats here. There are about half a billion of them on the planet. The proportion of purebred cats is miniscule in comparison and can be ignored in answering this question.
There is no doubt that the percentage of black cats at shelters is higher than for other cat coat types because they are the least popular cat colour. More of them must be euthanised than any other colour.
Note to PoCers: This page is an experiment. I am trying some “301 redirects” from a blogger subdomain to see how it works. Sorry if it is a bit boring. If you know the answer please leave a comment 😉
Lol! Sharks need to eat too!
Loud, persistent, Siamese cat-like and sometimes a bit annoying. He is a determined cat who gets his way. He barks like a dog sometimes.
Charlie is just such a handsome fellow, and cute, too! What does his meow sound like?
Well, not certain on that one, cuz we’ll probably end up in the sea, due to our amazing globally-warmed brain, an then the sharks will have their way. 😉
He’s right Michael. I may like a few people, but I have become a sort of benign misanthrope over the years. As for Dr Gareth Morgen in NZ, the kindest and most humane thing to give to him would be euthanasia and put him out of his misery as such a rabid cat hater.
It’s odd isn’t it, that the species that does the most harm, that has curtailed it’s own evolution via its enormous brain is the least likely to become extinct.
You mean make it warmer?