Dufftown "Rabbit Headed" Cat - Oriental Cat Comparison
In 1988 a gamekeeper at Dufftown, North East Scotland, trapped a large black cat in a fox trap. It had a slim muscular body, long legs and a long whip like tail – all typical of a black Oriental domestic cat. Di Francis suggested that in profile, its head looked rabbit-like with a small brain-case and long Roman nose. She convinced herself – and others unfamiliar with domestic breeds -that it was a primitive unknown cat species. In fact, all extant pictures of the Dufftown cat show a triangular face, large ears and long nose. It was apparently extremely ferocious and the gamekeeper had to shoot it from a distance.
In 1993 a similar cat was seen swimming after wildfowl near East Kilbride. The gamekeeper set his two dogs to scare the cat away. He claimed that the cat attacked the dogs so ferociously that he had to shoot the cat to protect his dogs from the assault. Francis referred to this cat as the second rabbit headed cat. Another such cat had apparently been killed by a gamekeeper on the Revack Estate and much earlier, in 1938 near Elgin, a gamekeeper attempted - and failed - to tame a feral kitten which photos showed to be a “rabbit headed “cat.
Although Francis suggests that these are an undiscovered primitive species, it is more than likely that they are hybrids between Scottish Wildcats and Siamese-type domestics. Between 1873 and 1904, the Scottish Wildcat was experimentally crossed with various domestic breeds, including the Siamese, and some of these hybrids were exhibited at early British cat shows. Because they inherited the untameable ("queer-tempered") temperament, domestic x wildcat hybrids often returned to the wild. In an area with few native Scottish Wildcats and a greater number of hybrid cats of Oriental breed type, the Oriental type could come to predominate.
She pointed to the Roman nose, large ears and narrow muzzle as indicating a new species, but all of these traits indicate the wedge-shaped head of a Siamese/oriental cat". Seal-point Siamese cats are genetically black and is a comparable case of Siamese/Wildcat hybridisation at Halle Zoo: a male Steppe cat (F libyca caudata) and black longhaired female domestic cat produced 3 wild-tempered shorthaired offspring. One of those kittens was mated to a male Siamese, producing black offspring (H Petzch, 1958, 1959). Inbreeding among hybrid wildcats with Sealpoint Siamese ancestry would easily produce the type of cats found at Dufftown and Elgin. Such hybridisation may have occurred at a time when gamekeepers routinely shot Wildcats so that surviving Wildcats bred with any domestic cat available. Feral cats and Wildcats are ferocious when trapped, but reports of them being shot purely because of their ferocity endangering man or dog are probably an excuse since gamekeepers generally shoot feral or domestic cats on sight.
Dufftown "Rabbit Headed" Cat - Oriental Cat Comparison
In 1988 a gamekeeper at Dufftown, North East Scotland, trapped a large black cat in a fox trap. It had a slim muscular body, long legs and a long whip like tail – all typical of a black Oriental domestic cat. Di Francis suggested that in profile, its head looked rabbit-like with a small brain-case and long Roman nose. She convinced herself – and others unfamiliar with domestic breeds -that it was a primitive unknown cat species. In fact, all extant pictures of the Dufftown cat show a triangular face, large ears and long nose. It was apparently extremely ferocious and the gamekeeper had to shoot it from a distance.
In 1993 a similar cat was seen swimming after wildfowl near East Kilbride. The gamekeeper set his two dogs to scare the cat away. He claimed that the cat attacked the dogs so ferociously that he had to shoot the cat to protect his dogs from the assault. Francis referred to this cat as the second rabbit headed cat. Another such cat had apparently been killed by a gamekeeper on the Revack Estate and much earlier, in 1938 near Elgin, a gamekeeper attempted - and failed - to tame a feral kitten which photos showed to be a “rabbit headed “cat.
Although Francis suggests that these are an undiscovered primitive species, it is more than likely that they are hybrids between Scottish Wildcats and Siamese-type domestics. Between 1873 and 1904, the Scottish Wildcat was experimentally crossed with various domestic breeds, including the Siamese, and some of these hybrids were exhibited at early British cat shows. Because they inherited the untameable ("queer-tempered") temperament, domestic x wildcat hybrids often returned to the wild. In an area with few native Scottish Wildcats and a greater number of hybrid cats of Oriental breed type, the Oriental type could come to predominate.
She pointed to the Roman nose, large ears and narrow muzzle as indicating a new species, but all of these traits indicate the wedge-shaped head of a Siamese/oriental cat". Seal-point Siamese cats are genetically black and is a comparable case of Siamese/Wildcat hybridisation at Halle Zoo: a male Steppe cat (F libyca caudata) and black longhaired female domestic cat produced 3 wild-tempered shorthaired offspring. One of those kittens was mated to a male Siamese, producing black offspring (H Petzch, 1958, 1959). Inbreeding among hybrid wildcats with Sealpoint Siamese ancestry would easily produce the type of cats found at Dufftown and Elgin. Such hybridisation may have occurred at a time when gamekeepers routinely shot Wildcats so that surviving Wildcats bred with any domestic cat available. Feral cats and Wildcats are ferocious when trapped, but reports of them being shot purely because of their ferocity endangering man or dog are probably an excuse since gamekeepers generally shoot feral or domestic cats on sight.