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Comment by cromka

2 days ago

Looks like a house cat, I am betting it's a matter of months before someone starts selling the crossbreds, like they do with Bengal.

Also, they're only 3-4 lbs!

44 comments

cromka

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BeetleB  16 hours ago

Let's see if it (or crossbreeds) can be tamed.

This particular one was actually being kept in a house because someone confused it for a "pretty housecat". After a while, the owner realized it didn't want to be tamed and contacted someone for help.

Also, it's the only known one in existence. Hard to start a breeding program unless they find more.

  • schoen  8 hours ago

    I remember seeing a wildcat in a sanctuary in Costa Rica with a similar story (the kittens looked like housecat kittens, so someone adopted them, but the adult cat's behavior was different enough to be really challenging). I've been trying to remember the exact species I saw there (maybe an oncilla?), but apparently there are several kinds of wildcat fairly easily mistaken for housecats as kittens.

    I think not all of them categorically refuse to be pets, but they're noticeably more aggressive and less affectionate compared to housecats.

  • mlmonkey  15 hours ago

    > Let's see if it (or crossbreeds) can be tamed.

    Clearly you are not a cat person ... the question is not if it can be tamed, but how quickly it can tame the humans around it ... ;-)

  • locallost  4 hours ago

    What do you mean it's the only one known? It got the name because locals called it that way. Locals will not call things they don't normally see.

    • Nursie  4 hours ago

      Yeah it’s not the only one known.

      Unfortunately while people are going wild as if someone found a never-before-seen cat, this is actually more “after genetic analysis we now know that the tiger cats that everyone already knew about in Bolivia are actually a different species to the ones in Brazil”.

      But that’s not very exciting so people and news outlets seem to be running with the story as if nobody had ever seen one before.

  • shevy-java  15 hours ago

    I mean, taming animals is trivial. Look at the lion whisperer. People before that thought that lions are always wild.

    Some animals are just harder to tame and remain ferocious more than others. But behaviour of animals is adaptable and most animals learn.

ghaff  16 hours ago

All the wildcats (which basically include domestic cats) are very closely related based on my understanding. Even the whole box thing is related to a lot of wildcats having a liking for caves.

  • WalterBright  12 hours ago

    All of a cat's senses and weapons face forward. It makes purfect sense to have its back protected from an attack from behind.

  • jjtheblunt  15 hours ago

    even as a kid we all liked little forts and boxes etc, which is itself interesting. snow caves were awesome; makes me wonder if it's a primeval instinct somehow.

Perenti  4 hours ago

I don't think they'll hybridise - Leopardus has 36 Chromosomes, while all other cats have 38.

lstodd  12 hours ago

3 lb housecat can shred your face so fast that your arms would be late arriving.

do not underestimate cats.

  • rootusrootus  9 hours ago

    Many years ago I met someone who had trained his two housecats to guard the house (I am not sure what that entails). He also had two great big dogs similarly trained. For my safety he would not let any of the animals near me when I visited, but he said the cats scared him more than the dogs did.

    • naishoya  9 hours ago

      One might argue that a guard dog may be inherently easier to bribe with a treat, or cower with bluster. A trained attack cat is a far scarier proposition, given the speed, sharpness, and number of 'utility knives' they have at the ready. Also, the dog is likely to bluster and warn you. The cat, not so much. Just go for your face.

      In my youth I witnessed a smallish adult puma (mountain lion) successfully harvest a nearly adult cow elk while I was hiding. I was also hunting, but focused on a bull elk somewhat further from me. It was astonishing the speed and total quantity of violence that an 80-100lb cat delivered in only a few seconds on nearly 500lbs of prey. The cat had an alomost perfect attack angle, and the combination of slash, grip, puncture, and throttle toppled the cow elk, and it ran out of resistance in very short order. I had not even seen the puma before the attack started, and I expect a trained attack housecat would practically appear out of nowhere - from behind a couch or a curtain or off the top of a refrigerator, and it would become an 'I need stitches' situation too easily.

      Its probably a good thing that most housecats are pretty much impossible to train beyond 'use a litterbox' and 'stay off the kitchen counters', if even that.

      5 replies →

dotancohen  13 hours ago

I believe that tri-colour house cats are all female. This is a tri-colour male.

  • shagie  11 hours ago

    Spots are different.

    The trim-color house cats refers to all calicos... calicos are white spotted tortoiseshell cats. The "is orange or black" is a X linked gene, so you can have XoXb... and then the x chromosome inactivation kicks in and some groups of cells are activated orange and some are activated black.

    But (not white) spots and variations of color get into things like the Agouti gene ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouti_coloration_genetics ). A tabby cat (black and tan, or orange and darker orange) has no sex linked characteristics.

    For a deep dive into the genetics of Agouti and how that influences cat fur colors, http://messybeast.com/genetics-agouti-and-corin.htm