Big cat next door
Felida, the 37-member strong cat family, is in trouble. Except for a few small cat species, all are considered threatened or endangered. There are an estimated 23,000 lions left in the wild, and fewer than 15,000 tigers, cheetahs, and snow leopards. One of the world’s oldest and most successful families of carnivores-their nearest common ancestor to the similarly successful dog-like carnivores lived 55 million years ago (MYA)-is in danger of thinning out.
The main reason for that is habitat depletion: big cats need huge habitats to thrive. In Namibia, each cheetah roams an area of roughly 1,500 square kilometres-more than twice the size of the GTA.
But while their wild kin are struggling, big cats are thriving in the U.S.-as pets. Their numbers have grown exponentially since the 80s, said Carol Asvestas, director of the Animal Sanctuary of the U.S., in San Antonio. She estimated there are about 20,000 privately owned big cats-mountain lions, pumas, and lions-in the U.S. Two years ago, she added, there were 5,000-odd tigers in the state of Florida alone.
Pet owners buy them as cubs, sometimes straight over the internet, according to Asvestas. As they continue to grow and grow, their new owners realize they are more than they bargained for, and animals often end up at one of the numerous sanctuaries and preserves in the United States.
Asvestas’s organization has been lobbying for upgrading the endangered species act to clamp down on commerce in exotic animals across state lines. Animal Sanctuary also supports efforts that would put animal sanctuaries under closer scrutiny. Asvestas said breeders and exhibitors have too easy a time getting animal permits U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the long-term, she envisions a gradual move toward an outright ban on the private ownership of exotic animals.
“The best solution is to grandfather anybody that has them, provided they are keeping these animals in a humane environment,” said Asvestas. “After those animals die, they should not be allowed to get more.”
Another leading figure in this fight is Tippy Hedren, a former actress who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, who is director of the Shambala Preserve, in California, north of Los Angeles. She is especially opposed to the private breeding of hybrids such as ligers, the product of male lions and female tigers-made popular by the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite.
At the same time, though, Hedren and Asvestas’s efforts threaten to drive a wedge between conservationists and some cat breeders-such as Gary Fulgham, of Jungle Touch Exotics, in California-who mate exotic cat species with domestic cats for certain desirable traits, such as their “wild look.”
While he agreed that one should never breed a lion with a tiger, he was critical of their support for banning the ownership of all exotic animals, and was especially critical of Hedren.
“She’s trying to put in all sorts of bills to stop people from owning exotics, period, yet she wants to be able to have them,” Fulgham charged.
Designer cats
Imagine a miniature tiger perched at your feet in the living room. Or perhaps a jaguar-like beast that loves people, has plenty of energy, and even jumps in the shower with you. Sounds like some strange Frankenfeline, no?
For a long time, domestic cat breeders produced new kinds of cats by inter-breeding the various sub-species of Felis catus. Typically, they selected some trait in one cat that they deem attractive-and then attempt to transfer it to an existing breed, in the process creating all the variety in coat and coloration found in today’s 50-odd recognized cat breeds.
More recently, though, breeders have begun mating domestics with cats of different lineages. One early pairing was between an Asian leopard cat and a domestic cat, which produced the Bengal breed, a large cat with a glossy, and often spotty coat. This breed earned the rubber stamp of the International Cat Association (TICA) in 1984, and is now an established breed.
In the 80s, there was an explosion of experimental breeds. The pairing of a small-headed and long-legged African cat called the serval produced the Savannah breed. The breed is not yet fully established-TICA lists it as an advanced new breed, meaning there still a ways away from becoming a championship breed.
Ellen Crockett, a member of TICA’s genetics board said there are not enough numbers of Savannahs yet, but she reckoned they will likely be recognized as a full-fledged breed in the next three to five years.
There have also been failures along the way, though: attempts to breed domestic cats with American Geoffroy’s cat, a small South American feline, to produce the so-called Safari hybrid, have been largely unsuccessful. Geoffroy’s cat has only 36 chromosomes, to the domestic’s 38. The result is a lot of still-born litters, said cat breeder Gary Fulgham. What do the scientists think of this inter-species tinkering, though?
Purists and biologists have a problem with it, said University of Maryland geneticist Dr. Stephen O’Brien. “Species that were created by millions of years of evolution should probably be respected,” he said. “Hybridization is something that is artificially induced by breeders for reasons that they convinced themselves are cool.
“But I’m not convinced,” he continued, pointing out that by the F5 generation, only about two per cent of a Savannah cat’s genome is of serval origin, since each cross between a hybrid and a domestic cat reduces the genetic contribution of the wild species by half.
Lisa Jeffrey, a small-time cat breeder in Niagara-on-the-Lake, said she has been breeding a sixth-generation Savannah male with a second-generation female. This means the resulting offspring, some of which she sells for about $1,500 to $3,000, have only about a third of a per cent serval in them.
With the Savannah, though, breeders may have hit on a combination of the best aspects of cats and dogs. “They’re stunning, beautiful,” purred Fulgham, and, like their serval ancestor, they don’t fear water.
“These hybrids are busy cats,” he said.
Make sure to pick up a copy of the print edition of The Varsity for a dazzling and illustrated display of all things feline.
