{"id":11,"date":"2022-12-14T15:09:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2022-12-27T20:02:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T20:02:41","slug":"goralguru-bengals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/goralguru-bengals\/","title":{"rendered":"Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Though several crossings of the Asian Leopard Cat and the domestic feline occurred throughout the early 1900s, the real work of developing the Bengal breed didn\u2019t begin until the 1960s.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Willard Centerwall<\/a><\/span>, a professor of pediatrics and maternal health at the Loyala University Medical Center, was a cat fancier and studied feline genetics as a hobby.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Centerwall was fascinated with the Asian Leopard Cat because it was found to be resistant to the feline leukemia virus (FLV) and he was one of several researchers who were interested in studying whether or not the trait could be passed to hybrid offspring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jean Sugden Mill<\/span><\/p>\n

Around the same time, a cat breeder by the name of Jean Sugden Mill also began crossing the ALC with domestic felines, starting with her own solid black tomcat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mill\u2019s motivation for creating a hybrid of the two was entirely different from Centerwall\u2019s, however.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas Centerwall was interested in manipulating feline genetics for health reasons, Mill\u2019s interest was more aesthetic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mill sought to create a hybrid breed that had the appearance of a wild cat in hopes that people who supported the fur trade would find it more difficult to purchase furs if they were similar in appearance to their own pets.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Mill received her first Asian Leopard Cat specimen from Dr. Centerwall in 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mill and Centerwall were not the only two to show an interest in hybridizing wild cats with domestic felines.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1970, zoo keeper Bill Engler produced two litters of kittens he named \u201cBengals\u201d by crossing his male Asian Leopard Cat, Shah, with two female domestic cats. Engler state that his purpose for creating such a hybrid was:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cto create a small exotic cat that was beautiful and that had the disposition that was suitable for a pet house cat\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text] Though several crossings of the Asian Leopard Cat and the domestic feline occurred throughout the early 1900s, the real work of developing the Bengal breed didn\u2019t begin until the 1960s. Dr. Willard Centerwall, a professor of pediatrics and maternal health at the Loyala University Medical Center, was a cat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/template-fullwidth.php","meta":{"_nl_post_content":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]\r\n

Though several crossings of the Asian Leopard Cat and the domestic feline occurred throughout the early 1900s, the real work of developing the Bengal breed didn\u2019t begin until the 1960s.\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Dr. Willard Centerwall<\/a><\/span>, a professor of pediatrics and maternal health at the Loyala University Medical Center, was a cat fancier and studied feline genetics as a hobby.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Dr. Centerwall was fascinated with the Asian Leopard Cat because it was found to be resistant to the feline leukemia virus (FLV) and he was one of several researchers who were interested in studying whether or not the trait could be passed to hybrid offspring.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jean Sugden Mill<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Around the same time, a cat breeder by the name of Jean Sugden Mill also began crossing the ALC with domestic felines, starting with her own solid black tomcat.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mill\u2019s motivation for creating a hybrid of the two was entirely different from Centerwall\u2019s, however.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Whereas Centerwall was interested in manipulating feline genetics for health reasons, Mill\u2019s interest was more aesthetic.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mill sought to create a hybrid breed that had the appearance of a wild cat in hopes that people who supported the fur trade would find it more difficult to purchase furs if they were similar in appearance to their own pets.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In fact, Mill received her first Asian Leopard Cat specimen from Dr. Centerwall in 1980.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mill and Centerwall were not the only two to show an interest in hybridizing wild cats with domestic felines.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In 1970, zoo keeper Bill Engler produced two litters of kittens he named \u201cBengals\u201d by crossing his male Asian Leopard Cat, Shah, with two female domestic cats. Engler state that his purpose for creating such a hybrid was:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cto create a small exotic cat that was beautiful and that had the disposition that was suitable for a pet house cat\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","_nl_post_name":"goralguru-bengals","_nl_post_excerpt":"","_nl_post_title":"Bengals","_en_post_content":"","_en_post_name":"","_en_post_excerpt":"","_en_post_title":"","_fr_post_content":"","_fr_post_name":"","_fr_post_excerpt":"","_fr_post_title":"","edit_language":"nl","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/offborderhill.be\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}