How Many Breeds Of Cats Are There?
Surely many guardians of domestic felines have wondered how many breeds of cats exist across the globe. This answer is not simple, because according to the classification criteria, the total number varies considerably.
It is necessary to emphasize that all the information that we are going to present is limited only to the domestic cat ( Felis silvestris catus ), so all breeds of wild cats are left out. Still, the variety that has been registered is sure to surprise you.
About the cat and its domestication
Although it was believed that the first foci of feline domestication arose in 2000 BC. C. in Egypt, new studies refute this idea. In 2004, a cat fossil was discovered next to a human corpse in a grave located on the island of Cyprus. Incredibly, these geological remains date back to 9.5 billion years.
Thus, the wild African cat ( Felis silvestris lybica ) is placed as the basal precursor of all domestic cat breeds that we know today. It is suggested that this domestication happened as a result of a symbiosis: humans needed to get rid of rodent pests and prey cats to hunt.
From this ancestral association, different breeds of cats have emerged over the years, with specific morphological traits as a result of human genetic selection. It should be noted that, no matter how different they are externally, two individuals of different races can reproduce with each other and therefore are considered to be the same species.
How many breeds of cats are there?
As we have said previously, the global number of cat breeds existing today depends largely on the source consulted. Here are some indicative numbers:
- The International Cat Association (TICA) estimates that there are a total of 71 standardized breeds.
- The Cat Fanciers’ Association (FCA) places this number at 44.
- A total of 43 breeds are recognized by the Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe).
- Finally, the lowest value is held by the Encyclopedia Britannica, with a total of 15 official domestic cat breeds.
As can be seen with these figures, the disparity between federations is absolute. This numerical chaos responds to different classification criteria. For example, some of these entities do not recognize as their own breeds those that do not have a distinct pedigree, that is, an effectively recorded pedigree.
In other cases, some organisms choose to include several types of felines in the same breed. An example of this are some of the colorpoint cats (with limbs and face of one color and the rest of the body of the other), which can be classified separately according to their origin or in the same “mega-breed”.
Are there any new cat breeds?
The answer to this question is a clear and resounding yes. For example, in 2018 the FCA introduced two new breeds: the Lykoi cat and the Khao Manee . Despite this, these classification systems tend to remain unchanged over the years, since very source evidence is required for a variety of domestic cat to end up being considered a breed in itself.
This scarce variation also responds to a protection of pets and the search for animal welfare over the novelty. Many of the domestic cat breeds share certain genetic traits, which may show the potential to be related to certain diseases or have simply not been sufficiently explored.
That is why these federations take great care when promoting the interbreeding between individuals and genetic selection to give rise to different races. We must not forget that animal welfare is above all.
Thus, we have been able to verify that the number of cat breeds on Earth is not fixed at all, as it depends on a series of classification criteria imposed by the association itself that registers the variety of these animals. Despite all this, we can affirm that the number of feline breeds is considerably lower than that of dogs, since this last figure is around 350 different breeds.
