A ginger cat. - Photo: Lydia Koh/Unsplash
ORANGE, or ginger, cats are much beloved around the world, from the deadpan, lasagna-loving Garfield to Malaysia’s own Oyen, a stray cat that went viral online for befriending the capybaras at Zoo Negara.
The orange colour in the coat comes from a particular pigment, called pheomelanin, which can also be found in red-haired people.
But did you know it’s said that most orange cats are male? How true is this?
VERDICT:
True
It’s estimated that around 80% of orange cats are male, or that there’s only one female in every five ginger cats.
According to Dr. Jerold Bell, an adjunct professor of genetics at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton, Massachusetts, USA, the colour genes for black and red in cats are contained within the X chromosome.
Males normally carry only one X chromosome, so males can be black or orange, or other colour variations, but cannot have both black and orange hair colours on their body.
A female cat will only inherit an orange coat if they carry the orange gene on both X chromosomes, whereas if a male carries the orange gene at all, he will be orange.
"As the frequency of the orange gene is much less than the frequency of the black gene in the general cat population, the chance of having two orange genes is much less frequent.
"This makes male orange cats more frequent than orange females," explains Bell.
So now you know why these endearing, chaotic orange felines are more often male than not. Conversely, calico or tortoiseshell cats are usually female – the female’s extra X chromosome allows the possibility of her receiving both a black and orange gene.
1. https://be.chewy.com/behavior-
2. https://www.sciencefocus.com/
3. https://thevets.com/blog/
