Angora cat

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Jean-Jacques Bachelier : White Angora Cat

The term angora cat is used differently in different historical periods:

  • Turkish Angora , a current breed of cats recognized by the breeders' associations.
  • Historical name for cats with longer fur. In use until around the early 1950s.
  • Until today a popular name for all cats with longer fur. In particular, white cats with longer hair are often referred to as angora cats.

Historical angora cat

The Angora cat ( Felis maniculata angorensis ) is a historical, semi- long-haired cat breed , the first representatives of which probably came from the earlier region of Angora in Asia Minor , where it was kept as a domestic cat . They came to Europe around the 17th century, initially at the courts of the European nobility. For a long time she was considered to be the primal mother of today's Persian cats. However, genetic studies, published in 2014, have shown that the Persian cat arises from chance matings of the Russian Angora cat , but is not related to oriental cat breeds. When clubs  for pedigree cats were founded at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, these - in particular the English organization GCCF - first formulated breeding standards and gave names to pedigree cats. The long-haired varieties were now all listed as Persian cats , the standard of which was later changed frequently. The pure angora cat has not been bred since then. In Germany, around 1930, the felinologist Schwangart tried to revive the traditional Angora type in addition to the modern Persian type, but under the name "German Longhair", which has also been used for a dog breed since the beginning of the 20th century . This new breed of cats did not last. In pedigree cat breeding, the historical term Angora cat has since been renamed Persian cat, but it does appear in general international usage.

Common term for cats with longer fur in general

Not only in Germany does the term "Angora cat" persist in the population. In Russia it is generally used for white and blue-gray semi-long-haired cats. However, it is not to be equated with a specific race recognized today.

History of the Angora Cat

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc 1580–1637

The first long-haired cats came to Europe in the 17th century. In addition to the Angora cats from what is now Turkey , cats are also said to have been imported from what is now Iran . The theory on which the alleged origin of the Persian cat is based, as it was supposed to be imported from the Persian eastern region of Khorassan , is not tenable, according to the Encyclopædia Iranica. Pietro de la Valle , on whom the thesis is based, was never in Khorassan, from where he is said to have brought half-long-haired animals from his trip. Years after his trip to Isfahan and Tabriz, according to Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, he described only a hearsay cat that resembled the Angora cat in every detail. The geographical proximity of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and, for example, Tabriz in Persia (Iran) therefore suggests that it must have been one and the same semi-long-haired domestic cat type.

Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc had the first Angora cats from the Angora region brought to France from Damascus , he collected rare plants and animals. From there they soon came to the court of Ludwig XIII. and then to England.

origin of the name

Ottoman empire de.svg

The name "Angora" can be traced back to the former Anatolian province Angora of the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). Since the angora goat and the angora rabbit also come from this region of today's Turkey, the name is likely to be transferred to the angora cat because of the equally long and silky fur.

Angora used to be a general name for animals with longer hair and is still used today, for example for the angora rabbit. This term appears in encyclopedias at the end of the 19th century, as well as in Brehms Tierleben in 1915 or in Die Angorakatze from the 1st German Angora Cats Breeding and Protection Association.

Renaming of the Angora cat into the Persian cat

Frances Simpson with a white Angora cat in Crystal Palace London (early 20th century)

It seems as if the Angora cat was renamed the Persian cat for profit, especially since, apart from the coat color, there were hardly any differences between the Angora cats, which were listed as longhair cats until the renaming. This is also due to the fact that, according to a study presented in 2014, there were crossbreeds of long-haired Russian cats in the period between the importation from Asia Minor to Europe from the end of the 17th century to the establishment of cat associations at the beginning of the 20th century . Cats for Enjoyment and Profit was the name of one of Mary Frances Simpson's books, in which she asks forgiveness for ignoring the Angora cat in favor of the Persian cat. This probably had to do with the end of the First World War and the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1923 Turkey with its capital Ankara , formerly Angora) and the relationship between England and the Persian Empire , later Iran.

The then stronghold for cat breeding England had already given up the term Angora cat at the beginning of the 20th century in favor of the new name "Persian cat" and no longer listed it as an independent pedigree cat . In the 19th century, long-haired Angora cats were still named after their coat color: Angora cat (white), Russian cat (mackerel), Maltese cat (light gray-blue), Chartreux (dark gray-blue) or French Chartreux (blue-gray) and Chinese Cat (yellow). From then on there were two categories: 1. Short-haired cats with several breeds and 2. Long-haired cats, to which the Persian cat was now the only breed.

In Germany, all long-haired cats were still referred to as Angora cats until the 3rd Cat Show in Berlin in 1929. The main focus in the breeding of long-haired cats was less the type than the coat color. As early as 1928, the first imperial exhibition for noble fur animals took place in Berlin, where so-called fur cats as "valued fur animals ... have found the interest of economically minded fur breeders" (excerpt from the preface from the same catalog by P. Schöps, Leipzig). However, it should be noted that fur from long haired cats was not used in the fur industry at the time because it was considered inferior.

In 1929, the German biologist Friedrich Schwangart therefore assigned the animals to their type, based on the English breeding goal of a squat round-headed Persian cat, the German Angora cats either to the Persian cat or animals in the traditional type of the German longhaired cat instead of the Angora cat. In the style of the burgeoning National Socialism , Schwangart wrote questionable literature today, such as on breeding and breeding of domestic cats . The 3rd cat show in Berlin in 1929 was the first show in which cats were assessed according to the new standard . In addition to the Persians, the term angora was also used later in the literature, also in brackets. In the literature, in Our Cats by Otto Fehringer from 1942, headings such as “Langhaarrassen or Angora” can be found, but images always have the signature Deutsch Langhaar. In the professional world, the new terms Perser and German long-haired apparently also did not gain acceptance. For example, the specialist veterinarian von Knebel in Dogs and Cats, as well as Otto Fehringer in his New Cat Book, only use Angora cats for everyone .

It can be assumed that the term Angora could not be used as a breed name because it was deleted and replaced by the German Longhair.

Example of a blue-gray Angora cat, formerly also known as the Maltese cat, Carthusian cat or Chartreux , from the Arche Angora cat project

This enabled the Persian cat to establish itself, especially since the 1970s through the high breed Persian with the "Peke-Face" (Pekingese face). In terms of parlance, however, the Angora cat could survive for decades. The Deutsch Langhaar, on the other hand, faded as quickly as it appeared, possibly due to the time in which it was created. At the beginning of the 20th century (before 1928) England and France placed all long-haired cats under the standard of the Persian cat, which is why there were no longer any Angora cats in pedigree cat breeding.

From 1950 onwards, cat breeders became increasingly interested in breeding long-haired cats. After the Second World War , the Deutsch Langhaar disappeared from active cat breeding programs and was allegedly purposefully bred again by an Aschemeier family in 1968. From the Zoo of Ankara still held, known as Angora cats animals ancient ancestry were now to breed Turkish Angora , which was officially recognized in 1970. The British Angora breed originated in Great Britain , although it has no connection with the historical Angora cat or the Turkish Angora and which was renamed Oriental Longhair in 2002 . The British longhair has been recognized since 2009 ( FIFe , TICA ). The Aschemeier family has been supported by a group of breeders since 2005 in their endeavor to re-establish the German long-haired cat, now under the name of the German long-haired cat . For this purpose, she presented five of her breeding animals to this breeding group in April 2009 . The Arche Angora cat project , on the other hand, is dedicated to breeding images , in particular of the Maltese cat, as it seems doubtful that the historical Angora cat, or in the course of its renaming to German Longhair, could prove to have survived more than 60-80 years in terms of breeding.

Turkish Angora

It was not until the 1970s that the historical Angora cat was virtually rediscovered and identified as the similar white animals still kept in Ankara Zoo . It has now been recognized as the Turkish Angora and is now bred around the world.

The long hair mutation

In cat breeding today, a distinction is made between short- haired cats and long- haired cats and semi- long-haired cats . From a genetic point of view, there is only one recessive hereditary mutation for long hair, but not a separate mutation that would trigger semi-long hair. The difference between original semi-long hair and long hair was achieved through targeted breeding for long hair in the Persian cat. However, there are (as of July 2009) 4 different forms of the recessive mutation , i.e. alleles of which it is not yet known to what extent they affect hair length and fullness differently. One of these variants applies to all semi-long-haired cats and the Persian cats bred from them, others only apply to the Ragdoll, Norwegian Forest Cat or Maine Coon.

The long-hair mutation probably goes back to the Turkish cats (Turkish Angora). This is not guaranteed. However, it can be assumed that such long-haired cats, evolved better adapted to harsh climatic conditions, after the end of the last Ice Age, by adapting to the habitat of the high mountains of the Caucasus, spread again to northern and eastern areas. This would explain the natural development of the Angora, the Siberian and the Norwegian Forest Cat , without human intervention through adaptation and with a pronounced summer-winter coat change as well as clear tufts of fur between the toes, which serve as snowshoes, and also explain the appearance of similar cats the Song or Ming period of China. The coat color of the first long-haired or angora cats introduced to Europe, such as white and gray or black, suggest the best climatic adaptation , similar to that of the arctic fox , in which the winter coat also has the variants white, gray or black. Long-haired cats of this origin are documented in the course of contacts between the royal houses, conquests and the increasing commercial activity between Europe and Asia Minor and later Asia since the 17th century. Speculations, according to which the longhair stems from the Pallas cat , have not been confirmed or refuted to this day, as well as that it is a mutation. Rather, it can be assumed that these cats originated from a mixture between the wild cat , Felis s.silvestris and the subspecies Felis s.caucasica before their domestication.

Because the long-hair mutation is recessive, it can slumber undetected in short-haired cats for many generations and then reappear. In many short-haired cat breeds and regional domestic cat litters, the long-hair mutation is present in this way. If breeders take on the long-haired offspring, new long-haired cat breeds can emerge, such as the British Longhair .

Web links

Wiktionary: Angora cat  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ zeno.org
  2. ↑ Charles Darwin: The Variation of Animals and Plants in the State of Domestication ... , Volume 1. 1868, p. 56
  3. ^ [1] 10th World Congress on Applied Genetics in Livestock Production (WCGALP) in Vancouver, accessed May 1, 2015
  4. ↑ chestofbooks.com
  5. ↑ Illustrated Cat Book , 1896, p. 44
  6. ↑ Angora cat, origin and history ( memento from March 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on March 7, 2017
  7. ^ Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon: Natural history, general and particular . 1749-88, Vol. 8, p. 317.
  8. ^ Brehms Tierleben 1915 , accessed on May 22, 2012
  9. ↑ Google.books: The Angora Cat, accessed July 1, 2014
  10. ↑ [2] Study on the genetic ancestry of the Persian cat 2014, accessed May 1, 2015
  11. ↑ chestofbooks.com.Retrieved May 22, 2012
  12. ↑ Archive.org.Retrieved June 22, 2014
  13. ↑ Illustrirte Naturgeschichte der Thiere , Volume 1. 1882, p. 222
  14. ↑ chestofbooks.com.Retrieved May 22, 2012
  15. ^ Animal exchange . In: Der Katzenfreund , 1929, p. 166
  16. ^ Fehringer: Our cat . 1942
  17. ↑ books.google.de 1932
  18. ^ Animal exchange . In: Der Katzenfreund , 1929, p. 178
  19. ↑ Reinhardt, Vaeth: Das Katzenbuch . 1931
  20. ↑ p. 156
  21. ↑ Dog and Cat . Green Post Publishing House, Berlin 1937, p. 81
  22. ↑ Our cat . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1959, pp. 150–152
  23. ↑ Dagmar Thies: Breeding pedigree cats . 1979
  24. ↑ Breeds recognized and admitted in the WCF ( Memento from June 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) wcf-online.de
  25. ^ Deutsch-Langhaar Infoportal ( Memento from July 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ Angora Cat's Ark ( Memento from March 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) accessed March 7, 2017
  27. ↑ CatGenes.org ( Memento of March 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ↑ jhu.edu (PDF; 278 kB)
  29. ↑ culture.teldap.tw , accessed on May 22, 2012.
  30. ↑ mobot.org (PDF; 1.4 MB) accessed May 22, 2012
  31. ↑ diss.fu-berlin.de (PDF) accessed May 22, 2012
  32. ↑ icav.up.pt ( Memento from August 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 311 kB) accessed May 22, 2012
  33. ↑ Wolfgang Puschmann: Zoo animal husbandry - mammals . Scientific publishing house Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 477