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In the early history of the Bengal breed, our gene pool
was dangerously small. We only
had the bloodlines of one Leopard Cat, and his descendents from 2
daughters. There were numerous
brother/sister breedings, done in order to
capture and intensify the "look" of the Bengal we were striving
for. But we all knew that if we
continued such tight inbreeding, we would be jeopardizing the health
and stamina of future generations.
So we were always on the lookout for a compatible outcross,
besides the Egyptian Mau, which had a lot of undesirable
characteristics we were trying to steer away from.
In
1991, Solveig Pflueger,
TICA's geneticist, happened to hear about
some cats that were discovered at a private residence in Texas. On
investigation, she found that these cats were registered with TICA as
"Bristol Cats". This
was a breed that predated the Bengals, and
which everyone thought had died out because of infertility
problems. Von Pilcher, an early and very reputable Bengal breeder, took a trip
to see these Bristols and try to learn of
their history. The most
interesting cat he saw was an old fellow, Cajun, who was supposedly the
sire of this colony of Bristol cats. The cats
in this cattery were not very fertile, producing only an average of 2
litters per year out of a total of about 10 cats.
Cajun not only had rosettes very similar
to that of the new world spotted cats, like the ocelot and margay, but
he had a very white ground color on his chest and belly, very small and
rounded ears, and a voice very similar to that of an ocelot. His pattern, color, head structure,
and voice were definitely of non-domestic origin. The other cats in the
colony were not as striking as Cajun, but their behavior was like that
of other hybrid cats. Also, some
of them also exhibited the peculiar black smoky charcoal color known to
occasionally appear in F1 and F2 Bengals, but
not in pure domestics.
So while
the documented history of the Bristol cats is unproven, based on what Von saw, he felt very
sure that these cats were certainly hybrid cats of some kind. Cajun and the other cats demonstrated
features known only to exist in three species of new world spotted
cats: the ocelot, the margay, and the oncilla.
Dr. Pfleuger
saw the potential for use of the Bristols in
the development of the Bengal breed, as these cats had many of the desirable
qualities that we valued, with their large bones, rosetted
coats, and the desirable head structure. She made further inquiries,
and found photos of a wild cat that was believed to have been used in
crossings with domestics, to produce the Bristols. The photos showed an ocelot-looking
feral cat, breeding a domestic shorthair cat.
Ms. Pflueger
got two females from this colony of Bristols
(the others were too old to be useful in a breeding program), and
placed one with Gene Ducote (Gogees Bengals) and one
with Karen Austin (Belltown Bengals)of Connecticut. Gene’s female never produced any
offspring, but the one with Karen, Belltown Sugarfoot, did produce several litters. She sent one of the kittens to Gene,
and she incorporated that line into her Bengal breeding
program. She found that the Bengals carrying Bristol blood, tended to have substantial bone, small ears, and
a great potential for producing rosettes.
Now, we are many generations down from
the original Bristol/Bengal cross, to the point that they are mostly Bengal. There have been no infertility
problems this far removed from the Bristols. But they did have a dramatic
influence on the Bengals, plus helped
diversify the genepool.
Several breeders are still working with
lines that go back to the Bristol/Bengals,
and claim that they have had very successful results. Others argue, however, that there are
no South American feral species of cats that are able to reproduce with
domestic cats. In effort to sort
this out, there are now efforts being made to have DNA testing and
coding on Bengals who have descended from the
Bristol lines. We hope
to prove that there are some genetic codes present in these Bengals, which can be traced back to one of the
wild species. At this point
however, the true story of the Bristol cat is undocumented and unproven, and we can only guess
at their heritage.
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