What we in the US refer to as calico is known as a tortie and white in the UK. This tabby pattern is called a torbie because it features tortie hues. A chocolate tortoiseshell cat has a lot of black, whereas a dilute tortoiseshell cat has more subtle hues like off-white and pastel violet. What is Tortie?Īmber, red, chocolate, brown, black, and cinnamon are just few of the unique hues that make up the combination in the brindled coat of a tortoiseshell cat. They are distinguished by an additional X chromosome. A defect in the genes of both calico and Tortoiseshell cats causes sterility to occur in one in every three thousand of these cats. When you look at a tortoiseshell cat, you'll notice that her coat has almost no white markings. While the genetics of both types of cats are identical, calico cats have one extra copy of the allele responsible for white spots. Cats can be either calico or tortoiseshell, but not both. Now, Nitama (which literally means “Tama Two”), one of Tama’s former apprentices, serves as stationmaster at Kishi Station, continuing Tama’s epic legacy.Calico and tortoiseshell are the names used to describe the pattern and coloring of a cat's hair. Tama has been given the distinguished title of “Honorable Eternal Station Master.” In keeping with the Japanese Shinto religious tradition, she was elevated to the status of the goddess of the Yakayama Electric Railway. Thousands of people attended her funeral at Kishi Station. In 2015, Tama passed away at 16 years of age. A recording of Tama meowing is played when the train doors open at a station. The front of the train even has cat ears and whiskers. Tama was even knighted by the Wakayama governor! A Tama-themed line was introduced in 2010, the Tamaden railway, featuring a train decorated with paw prints and cartoons of Tama. In the first year she was stationmaster, ticket sales rose more than 10 percent. Tama was given a stationmaster’s hat and her salary was paid in cat food. She was the first feline stationmaster in Japan - and not the last. Have you ever heard of a cat with a job before? In 2007, a calico cat named Tama was officially named the “Stationmaster of Kishi Station” in Japan’s Wakayama prefecture region. The Massachusetts state cat is the tabby cat.Ī Japanese railway station has a calico cat stationmaster. As you may have guessed, the Maine Coon is the official cat for Maine. have official cat representatives for their official state mammal: Maine, Massachusetts, and Maryland. The rationale? The calico cat’s fur coloring of orange, black, and white are shared by the Maryland state bird, the Baltimore oriole, and the Maryland state insect, the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.Īnother fun fact - only three states in the U.S. In 2001, the calico cat became the official cat for the state of Maryland. Male calico cats are very rare since they only occur as the result of a genetic anomaly.Ĭalico cats are the official state cat of Maryland. Male cats typically only have one X chromosome, so they tend to be either black OR orange, but not both. Black and orange fur are both linked to the X chromosome, and since female cats have two X chromosomes, they can have both colors at once. Without getting into too much detail, calico cats are almost always female since a cat’s coat coloring is linked to genetics. Just like torties, calico cats are most often female. As the ships sailed from port to port, the cats started to travel throughout the world and spread their unique fur and coat pattern genetics, too. It’s believed that Egyptian merchants took calico cats aboard their ships to help keep their vessels from being overrun with mice and rats. The orange mutant gene that’s found in calicos likely originated from Egypt and was traced to port cities along the Mediterranean Sea in France, Greece, Italy, and Spain. While there’s no way to be 100% certain where they originated from, one study traced calico cats along shipping trade routes in Europe and Northern Africa. Calico cats may have originated from Egypt.Ĭalico cats have been around for a long time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |