The Bengal a unique breed

Bengal terminology

black-and-tan: a black-and-tan individual has a black upper side, and a warm brown under side. The two colours must be very sharply seperated. An example of black-and-tan is the Dobermann Pinscher dog.
blotchy shoulder markings: shouldermarkings resembling those of a marble on a spotted Bengal. A very desirable trait that is usually seen on Bengals with very large spots.
brown tabby: other terms used to indicate a brown tabby: black tabby, leopard.
bulls-eye pattern: the classic tabby or blotched tabby is a pattern commonly occurring with housecats. It is very beautifully developed on British and American Shorthairs. The round marking on the side is called the bulls-eye, the markings on the shoulder are called the butterfly. These two characteristics of a classic tabby are undesirable on a marble Bengal, to distinguish the marble clearly from the classic tabby, and because vertically oriented markings have an adverse influence on the spotting pattern.
cheekbones: the part of the skull directly under the eyes. In cats, high cheekbones can be mixed up with jowls or pinch. Pinch is an abrubt narrowing of the skull where the begins, just below the actual cheekbones.
domestic cat: member of the the species Felis domesticus, to which all pedigree cats and housecats belong. The origin of the domestic cat is largely unknown. Most theories place the origin of the domestic cat in Egypt, with the probable ancestors being the Junglecat (Felis chaus) and the African Wildcat (Felis lybica). Of the two, the African wildcat resembles a domestic cat most and is therefore the most likely ancestor, but this Southern variety of the European Wildcat (Felis sylvestris) is absolutely untameable. The Junglecat looks less like a domestic, it is patterned like an Abyssinian, but its offspring with a domestic cat is tameable. The search for the origin of the domestic cat still continues.
dominant: genes are always inherited in pairs. A dominant gene is a gene that is always expressed, even when the pair consists of two different genes. Example: the gene for brown tabby is dominant over the gene for snow. If a cat carries one gene for brown tabby and one for snow, the cat will look like a brown tabby.
Egyptian Mau: a spotted natural breed from Egypt. Has been used very often for the hybridisations, because it is already spotted, has a moderate bodytype and carries few recessive genes.
F-1 generation: in Bengal breeding this is the generation originating from a cross between an Asian leopard cat male and a domestic female. The domestic female used to be an Egyptian Mau, at present it is usually a Bengal female. All the males of this F-1 generation are sterile, because of the genetic differences between two different species. F-2 generation: this generation consists of the kittens of the F-1 females. The father is another domestic, usually a later generation Bengal. Most F-2 males are infertile. fenotype: the fenotype are the exterior characteristics resulting from the genotype, the genetical lay-out of the animal.
flowing: a flowing pattern means, that the spots or marble markings follow the contours of the body. This creates a very natural effect that reminds strongly of the spotting of wild felines.
foundation generation: designates the F-1 and F-2 generations, because the Bengal breed originated from these generations. The early generations often look a lot wilder than the later generation Bengals, the males are usually sterile, and the temperaments may be more difficult.
genetic basis: the total of genetic material available within a certain breed.
heterozygous: an individual is heterozygous for a certain trait if both its parents have given it a different gene for this trait. Example: if a marble male is mated to a spotted female, the spotted kittens will be heterozygous for the spotting pattern, because they have been given a gene for spotting from their mother and a gene for marble from their father.
homozygous: an individual is homozygous for a certain trait if it carries two of the same genes for this trait. Recessively inheriting traits (like marble) are only expressed if an individual is homozygous for them.
jowls: a thickening of the side of the head in adult unneutered males. It makes the head of a male look broader and rounder, and starts to develop after the first few matings. Some breeds are more inclined to have jowls than others, the British shorthair for example has very thick jowls.
large wild felines: predominantly members of the genus Panthera, like the lion, the tiger the leopard and the jaguar. These cats are much larger and have a different headtype than the smaller cats.
ocelli: most small wild cats have light spots on the back of their ears. These round, white spots are also called nighteyes, because they are probably meant to resemble eyes, giving predators that approach the cat from behind the impression that the cat is looking directly at them.
Ocicat: a spotted breed of cats, that originated from attempts to create a ticked tabbypoint Siamese. To reach this objective, Siamese and Abyssinians were crossed. One of the offspring from such a mating had beautiful spots, and was used to create an entirely new breed of spotted cats. American shorthairs were used to make the breed larger, but the head- and bodytype are still quite foreign.
pigmentation: the colour of hair and skin is is determined by the density of the pigment granules inside. A lot of pigment causes a dark colour, and less pigment causes a lighter colour. The pigmentation of the Siamese depends on the temperature: colder bodyparts have a stronger pigmentation and therefore a darker colour.
points: the ears, the muzzle, the legs and the tail,which are coloured darker than the rest of the body in a Siamese, are called the points.
polygenetic: a trait that is determined by several genes. Example: the pattern of a Bengal (marble, spotted) is determined genetically, the rufinism of the coat colour (warmbrown, greybrown) polygenetically.
recessief: a recessively inheriting trait is a trait that only shows if the animal is homozygous for it.
selective breeding: a breeding method, where a particular combination is chosen for the fenotype of the female and the male. The male should correct any faults the female has, and vice versa. The resulting litter will by approximation look like this: one quarter will have the faults of both mother and father. These kittens will be excluded from further breeding efforts. One quarter will have the good qualities of both mother and father: these kittens will bring the breed further to its designated goal. One half of the kittens will have some good, and some bad traits of both mother and father. They will be usefull for further breeding if combined with a cat that corrects their faults. A completely different method of breeding is linebreeding where the appearance of the individual is less important than his ancestry.
sorrel Abyssinian: the sorrel Abyssinian siffers genetically from the ruddy Abyssinian: the difference in colour is caused by the recessive gene for cinnamon, that dilutes black colouring to light brown. Contrary to the Abyssinian sorrel, the sorrel Bengal is a normal brown tabby genetically, the difference in colour is determined polygenetically. The term sorrel Bengal stems from the US, where a sorrel Abyssinian is called 'red' and the use of the term sorrel is therefore not confusing.
undercoat: the coat of a cat consists of two kinds of hairs, longer, harsher hairs and shorter, softer hairs. The soft hairs are the undercoat that keeps the cat warm and dry. Through selective breeding one can make the hairs of the undercoat longer (Persian) or shorter (Siamese). A thick undercoat makes the longer guardhairs stand out, which is very desirable for a Persian because it makes its coat look even fuller. A Bengal should not have an abundant or long undercoat, because it spoils the spotting pattern.
white spotting: it is not completely clear whether white toes, white spots on the belly and white lockets fit into this dominant gene. If they really inherited dominantly, they would be relatively easy to get rid of, and they are not. Also, a cat with a white locket should then sometimes give kittens with white socks or tailtips, which is not the case. Perhaps white spots on toes, chest and belly of a cat inherit similarly to those on dogs, where white spots can skip generations, to suddenly appear again from fully coloured parents. weak chin: the chin of a cat is in fact its lower jaw. A weak chin means, that the lower jaw is shorter than the upper jaw. Usually, a short lower jaw is also very flat, making the upper jaw look very dominant in the face. If the chins become too weak, overbites can result, which means that there is a space of several millimeters between the upper and lower front teeth.