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EXPERIENCE THE JUNGLE THROUGH A CHAUSIE
(by Judy Bender) Imagine a wild cat fetching a quail
after the kill, for their early Egyptian owners. What a tremendous sight that
must have been! What kind of wild cat could have been taught to do such a task?
The Jungle Cat (Felis Chaus). The highly intelligent,
fast-moving Jungle Cat, combined with the even temperament of a domestic,
creates the magnificent new Chausie! One of the newest hybrid breeds TICA has
accepted for foundation registry as of March 1995. The Chausie
program is replicating the Jungle Cat in domestic form for us all to enjoy. We
are dealing with what seems to be a recessive 3/4 length tail gene which is a
trait of the Jungle Cat we want to capture. Most, or nearly all, of the kittens
born to Jungle Cat x domestic breedings produce long tail kittens, which should
carry the shorter tail gene. So, back to the Jungle Cat, then further domestic
and Chausie to Chausie breedings to bring out this gene. You may get lucky
though, when you breed two Chausies together that both happen to carry the
hidden gene, and get some 3/4 tail kittens. The good side of a recessive tail
gene is once two 3/4 tail Chausies are bred together, they should breed true and
produce all 3/4 length tails. I have heard of a few kittens that were born with
the correct tail length from the first cross, but this is extremely rare. The
standard, which is in the final stage, states; "only natural long tail
domestics may be used in the Chausie breeding program". That way, when we
get a 3/4 tail kitten we will know exactly where it came from - the Jungle Cat!
Our 50% and 75% males seem to be sterile, but we have high hopes for the
25% males as the Jungle Cat is a wild species which is closely related to our
domestics. When young, the lighter colored Jungle Cats and
Chausies are a grey color with stripes and bars over a lot of their body. With
correct breedings this will fade out on the body and stay mostly on the legs and
tail, just like a mature golden Jungle Cat. Even though people
have bred the Jungle Cats to domestics for quite a few years, no one until
recently had done further generation breedings. This causes us Chausie breeders
to have a few unanswered questions, like with any new breed. Oh, but the end
result will be magnificent! With piercing eyes, large tipped ears, a 3/4 tail
and legs carrying a good size body well off the ground, and all wrapped up in a
black melanistic to golden dense short coat. With a high intelligence the
Chausie is a joyous companion that any one will be able to enjoy. This article
appeared in "Cat World International" ( Jan/Feb 1997 ) |