The first Algonquin Cat was an orange tabby that hotelier Frank Case named Rusty. Garfield is the world’s most famous cartoon orange tabby.Ģ. Photography by Carlos Cardetas | Alamy Stock Photo.ġ. No matter the science behind tabbies, if you’re a cat person, you’ve undoubtedly been enchanted by a tabby cat, whether it’s your own fabulous feline, a tabby that “works” in a local store or even a cartoon tabby such as Garfield who identifies with the very human trait of hating Mondays. But this trait is linked to coat color (as in fiery red) and not to the tabby pattern. Red tabbies, often called orange, ginger and marmalade tabbies, can be feisty and bossy. When it comes to personality traits, tabbies are considered friendly, happy-go-lucky cats, intelligent, sassy, very affectionate and wonderful companions. A non-religious version suggests that the M is a set of frown lines, the result of a cat staring at a mousehole in concentration, waiting for a mouse to emerge.In gratitude, the Virgin Mary marked the cat’s face with the first letter of her name. Christians believe that when newborn baby Jesus wouldn’t stop crying, a cat climbed into the manger and started to purr, sending him off to sleep.It is said that the M marking on the forehead of the tabby cat was created when he rested his hand on the brow of his favorite cat. The prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was an acknowledged cat lover.This is where legend pushes genetics aside with these intriguing notions as to how these markings came about. Facial features of tabbies A feature common to tabbies is their facial markings that include a distinctive M on their foreheads and expressive pencil-thin striped markings around the eyes, affectionately referred to as “eyeliner.” Photography by Casey Elise Photography.Īnother distinguishing feature common to tabbies is their facial markings that include a distinctive M on their foreheads and expressive pencil-thin striped markings around the eyesĪffectionately referred to as “eyeliner.” However, the legs, tail and face sport very thin stripes.
The coat on the body has almost no stripe. The fourth tabby coat pattern is called ticked or agouti. The spotted tabby has distinct round spots against a background of lighter fur. Photography by Tierfotoagentur | Alamy Stock Photo.ģ. The mackerel tabby has either continuous or broken stripes running perpendicular to the spine, like a fishbone. The classic tabby coat, sometimes called blotched, has wide, dark stripes curving over the flanks and the shoulders and three large stripes running from the shoulder blades to the base of the tail. Photography ©VladislavStarozhilov | Thinkstock.ġ. 4 tabby coat patterns A classic or blotched tabby cat.
And, it’s easy to understand how a coat with stripes and spots could camouflage well into natural surroundings. Research done by feline geneticists Carlos Driscoll and Leslie Lyons at the beginning of this millennium confirmed five genetic clusters, or lineages, of wildcats from various parts of the world (such as Africa, Europe, China, Central Asia and the Middle East) and dating back some 10,000 years to be the ancestors of today’s ubiquitous domestic tabbies. The tabby pattern is determined by the agouti gene, which causes the individual hairs to have bands of light and heavy pigmentation, and the tabby gene, which denotes the type of tabby patterns, namely stripes, blotches or spots of hairs of solid color.
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