Legend also claims that Muhammad gave cats the ability to always land on their feet. The cat later warned him of danger, so Muhammad blessed him in thanks, thus marking the tabbies with an “M”. Rather than disturb the sleeping feline, he cut off his sleeve when he went to pray. One tale involving the prophet Muhammad speaks of a tabby cat that fell asleep on the prophet’s sleeve. Still others say Mary was not involved at all-that the tabby is simply blessed for comforting a child in need. Another tells the story of Mary once again marking a tabby in this way, except it was because the cat killed a venomous snake that had been sent to bite the baby Jesus. One says that when the baby Jesus wouldn’t stop crying in his manger, a tabby cat climbed inside and started to purr, giving him warmth and comfort so that he could sleep in thanks, Mary marked the tabby’s forehead with the first letter of her name. There are a few variations of a Christian legend involving a tabby cat, the baby Jesus, and the Virgin Mary. These ancients believed the “M” was a reference to Mau, or that the mark represented the sacred scarab beetle. Mark of MauĪncient Egyptians called cats “Mau” (sounds suspiciously like “meow,” does it not?).
A curious amount of folklore exists around this particular feature, stretching back thousands of years. One of the most distinctive aspects of the tabby cat is the “M” shape on the forehead.
(Important for the outdoor tabbies, anyway!) Tabbies descended with these important physical traits intact. It’s no big stretch to say that these wildcats’ built-in camouflage of spots and stripes helped pave the way for their continued existence and evolution. Tabbies may be the world’s “original” catsĪccording to Catster, feline geneticists 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.” These findings likely explain how coat patterns are formed on big cats, too, such as tiger stripes, cheetah spots, and cougar ticks. Remember how the “ticked” tabby pattern is primarily displayed on Abyssinian cats? This happens because mutations in the gene Dkk4 result in shorter, thinner strokes of color.
#Blue tabby cat vs grey tabby skin#
This thick-thin skin variation can be detected even before embryos develop hair follicles! Thick patches with more Dkk4 expression are later covered with darker fur, while thin patches with less Dkk4 expression are later covered with lighter fur. Researchers discovered that the gene Dkk4 actually “maps” a pattern of thick and thin skin during fetal cat development. The patched tabby typically features patches of brown and orange tabby patterns, with markings often more apparent on the legs and head.Īssociated breeds: American Shorthair, Birman, British Shorthair, Cornish Rex, Domestic Shorthair, Exotic Shorthair, Japanese Bobtail, Manx, Norwegian Forest Cat, Persian, Siberian, Turkish Van How do tabby patterns form?Ī 2021 study published in Nature Communications answers the question that has puzzled geneticists for decades: how do cats get their stripes, spots, and swirls? What do you get when you cross a tabby and tortie cat, or a tabby and calico? A “torbie” and a “caliby,” respectively. However, chances are almost certain that there’s a tabby for any type of family, including those with children and other pets.Patched tabby - © carolyn.will / Flickr / CC-BY-SA-2.0 Bonus: Patched tabby cat Tabbies can easily be identified by their sweet nature and the legendary capital 'M' on their furry forehead.īecause many different breeds of cats sport the tabby coat, it's hard to generalize about their personalities. Brown mackerel markings are most frequently seen. Their coats have one dominant color and stripes in the brown and black color families. Tabbies are known for their stripes, swirls and spots, making up one of seemingly infinite color and pattern combinations. To make things even more interesting, there are five types of Tabby markings: classic, mackerel, spotted, ticked and patched. In fact, every feline has the tabby gene, but it does not present in the coat of every cat. When asked what breed their striped cat is, many people reply with "Tabby." However, like many common cat monikers (Tuxedo, Tortoiseshell, Calico, etc.) "Tabby" refers to the coat pattern, not a specific breed of cat.
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