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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. About six million years ago,

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Speaker 1: two feline factions went their separate ways. A small bodied

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Speaker 1: cat living in Europe became the common ancestor of both groups.

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Speaker 1: One lineage eventually gave rise to Felis catus, the modern

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Speaker 1: domestic cat kept in millions of households. The other produced

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Speaker 1: a species known as and forgive my rusty Latin priyan

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Speaker 1: Aileris ben galensis, or the wild leopard cat. Distributed across

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Speaker 1: southern and Eastern Asia. It prowls forests, farms, and grasslands.

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Speaker 1: Weighing about seven to fifteen pounds that's about three to

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Speaker 1: seven kilos on average. A few would mistake the creature

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Speaker 1: for an actual leopard, yet it's a skilled predator all

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Speaker 1: the same, and just like leopards. Many of these wee

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Speaker 1: beasties are covered with rosettes roundish spot clusters that surround

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Speaker 1: lighter patches of fur. In the twentieth century, demand for

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Speaker 1: exotic looking pets created a hybrid cat market by crossing P.

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Speaker 1: Bengalensis with the more familiar Felis catis. A new breed

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Speaker 1: rose and prominence athletic and willful. This so called Bengal

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Speaker 1: cat can be quite a handful, and as we'll see,

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Speaker 1: it's no stranger to controversy. One of the cat lovers

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Speaker 1: who helped the Bengal get its start was geneticist Williard

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Speaker 1: center Wall. In nine, center Wall, then a professor at

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Speaker 1: California's Loma Linda University, began crossing domestic cats with leopard cats.

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Speaker 1: The latter are resistant to the feline version of leukemia

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Speaker 1: cancer he was studying. Through his hybridized cats, center Wall

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Speaker 1: sought new insights into the hereditary processes associated with this disorder.

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Speaker 1: He wasn't the first person to breed leopard cats with domestics.

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Speaker 1: Reports show that other hybrids were born as far back

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Speaker 1: as nineteen thirty one, and we can't discuss Bengal origins

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Speaker 1: without acknowledging the late gene Mill. A collaborator of center Walls.

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Speaker 1: This conservationist made it a leper cat with a black

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Speaker 1: tom cat in nineteen sixty three. Thus began a decades

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Speaker 1: long passion for Bengals. Mills gorgeous animals and their descendants

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Speaker 1: would soon become regulars at high profile cat shows. That

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Speaker 1: visibility popularized the breed as a whole. Another breeder of

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Speaker 1: note was Bill Angler, a zookeeper and longtime animal importer,

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Speaker 1: using a leopard cat named Shah Angler bread a number

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Speaker 1: of half domestic half wild kittens in the early nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 1: He might have also given these critters their popular name.

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Speaker 1: Popular Myths says that Bengal could be a play on

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Speaker 1: the abbreviation be Angler. Of course, it could simply stand

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Speaker 1: from the species name bean glensis. The world may never know. Today,

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Speaker 1: you can find Bengals in a number of different colors

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Speaker 1: and patterns. Most people associate these animals with the rosette

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Speaker 1: markings detailed above, but not all rosettes look alike. They

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Speaker 1: can be pointed and vaguely arrow shaped, or circular with

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Speaker 1: a doughnut like flare. Other Bengals have so called paw

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Speaker 1: print rosettes. As the name implies, those splotches almost look

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Speaker 1: like animal tracks. And then you've got Bengals with swirling,

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Speaker 1: multitoned marble coats instead of the more traditional spots. Back

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Speaker 1: Millbred the first known kitten to rock this distinctive first style.

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Speaker 1: The coat space color can be quite variable too, depending

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Speaker 1: on the individual, can look brown, golden, charcoal, gray, silvery,

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Speaker 1: or even whitish. And that's right, folks, there are white

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Speaker 1: furred Bengal cats who look like miniature snow leopards out

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Speaker 1: there underneath their showy coats. Bengals tend to have muscular physiques.

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Speaker 1: According to the Cat Fanciers Association, the hind legs are

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Speaker 1: a bit taller than the shoulders. In general, adult Bengals

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Speaker 1: way about eight to fifteen pounds or four to seven kilos,

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Speaker 1: a tiny bit more than their wild ancestors. But these

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Speaker 1: guys have a well earned reputation as energetic felines. Fond

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Speaker 1: of long walks and games of fetch. Bengals are on

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Speaker 1: the move almost constantly. To prevent boredom, keepers can stock

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Speaker 1: up on toys or get their pet a feline playmate.

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Speaker 1: Like Savannah cats, another hybrid breed, Bengals have an affinity

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Speaker 1: for water related activities, from swimming in kittie pools to

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Speaker 1: showering with their owners. If you don't know what you're

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Speaker 1: getting into, all that stamina can feel overwhelming. Too Often,

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Speaker 1: people who are drawn to the breed's wild appearance are

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Speaker 1: unprepared for its wild lifestyle. Partly for this reason, the

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Speaker 1: Minnesota based Wildcat Sanctuary and Tampa Floor It's a Big

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Speaker 1: Cat Rescue to Organizations that provide housing and care for

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Speaker 1: exotic feelines have discouraged would be owners from buying hybrid

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Speaker 1: cats bengals included. For her part, Mill believed that the

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Speaker 1: normalization of pet bengals would both decrease the public's appetite

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Speaker 1: for luquard skin coats and raise awareness about wildcat conservation.

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Speaker 1: It's important to do your research before buying any kind

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Speaker 1: of new pet. If you're looking to purchase a Bengal

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Speaker 1: kitten or adult, look into the creature's ancestry. The heritage

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Speaker 1: of an individual cat may affect its trainability. Bengals with

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Speaker 1: wild parents or grandparents usually require more socialization than those

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Speaker 1: descended from a long line of captive born animals. State

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Speaker 1: and local laws also deserve your attention. Some places, such

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Speaker 1: as Hawaii, have put a ban on Bengal cat ownership.

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Speaker 1: Other areas will let you keep a pet bengal, but

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Speaker 1: only if the cat is several generations removed from any

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Speaker 1: wild ancestors. Today's episode was written by Mark Bancini and

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Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang, a brain Stuff Is production and

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio's How Stuff works from More on that a

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Speaker 1: lots of other topics that aren't kittting around. Oh I'm

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Speaker 1: sorry about that one, visit our home planet how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. And for more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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