In 1889, Harrison Weir wrote in "Our Cats and All About Them": There is a rich-coloured brown tabby hybrid to be seen at the Zoological Society Gardens in Regent's Park, between the wild cat of Bengal and a tabby she-cat. It is handsome, but very wild. These hybrids, I am told, will breed again with tame variety, or with others.

In 1927, Mr Boden-Kloss wrote to "Cat Gossip" regarding hybrids between wild and domestic cats in Malaya: "I have never heard of hybrids between bengalensis (the Leopard Cat) and domestic cats. One of the wild tribes of the Malay Peninsula has domesticated cats, and I have seen the woman suckling bengalensis kittens, but I do not know whether the latter survive and breed with the others!"

In the 1990s, cryptozoologist Karl Shuker suggested that escaped Leopard Cats (F. bengalensis) may have led to natural Leopard Cat hybrids in Britain, citing the development of the Bengal breed to support this ("The Lovecats", Fortean Times 68, pages 50-51). While the Bengal originates from such hybrids, those hybrids rarely breed successfully without human intervention. In the definitive book of the breed, "Getting to Know the Bengal Cat" by Gene Johnson, it is documented that F1 males are sterile while the fertile F1 females are poor mothers and may commit infanticide. F2 (hybrid x domestic) kittens may have to be raised by a foster-mother and are fully fertile. Without human intervention, hybridization with Leopard cats would very likely stop with the sterile F1 males and the poor maternal skills of the F1 females.

A more likely, and very dilute, source of Leopard cat genes is the Bengal breed. However, Bengal x moggy offspring will not be ferocious giants since, contrary to wildly inaccurate press reports, Bengals are affectionate, unaggressive and normal pet cats. In 2003, the BBC and other news agencies reported "90%" wild-blood "Bengals". Cats with such high percentages of wild blood are not pets, they are produced by back-crossing successive generations of Bengals to pure-bred Asian leopard cats and are used in breeding programmes. The percentage of wild blood in pet Bengals is closer to 12.5%

Some Bengals also contain a few Margay genes; an early experimental "Bristol" hybrid resulted from domestic x Margay (F wiedi) crosses. The "Bristol" numbered only a few individuals, some of which were incorporated into early Bengals (see next section). The Bengal has been crossed with a number of domestic breeds and with other wild species.

The Russian Ussuri breed is believed to be the result of natural hybridization between domestic cats of Siberian and European Shorthair type and the local subspecies of Asian Leopard Cats. This is conjecture based on the cats' physical appearance. The Ussuri is a naturally occurring breed, but its numbers are dwindling through interbreeding with other local cats. This demonstrates the shift towards the prevalent local type. Unless a breeding programme is set up to preserve the type, hybrid or not, it will be lost.

According to Charles Darwin in "The Variation Of Animals And Plants Under Domestication" (1860s), "Azara states, but only on the authority of the inhabitants, that in Paraguay the cat has crossed with two native species."

The "Bristol" breed, derived from margay x domestic crosses, predated the Bengal breed, but died out due to infertility problems. Around 1991, the last fertile Bristols were absorbed into the early Bengal breed to augment the Bengal's limited gene pool (due to inbreeding). In 1991,Solveig Pflueger, TICA's geneticist, heard of some cats housed at a private residence in Texas. These were registered with TICA as "Bristol Cats" - a breed believed to be extinct through infertility. The colony numbered about 10 cats and its sire was Cajun (then quite old); it was not very fertile, averaging 2 litters per year. Cajun's rosettes resembled those of an ocelot or margay and he was believed to be an ocelot, margay or oncilla (tiger cat) hybrid. Breed books and articles of the 1980s reported the Bristol as a margay hybrid. Cajun had a very white ground colour on his chest and belly, very small and rounded ears, and a voice like that of an ocelot. Though less striking, the other cats were also clearly hybrids. Some had the black smoky charcoal colour that sometimes appears in F1 and F2 Bengals. Investigation unearthed photos of an ocelot-type cat mating with a domestic shorthair. The ocelot-looking cat is sometimes wrongly described as a "feral" cat - "feral" means a domestic animal that has reverted to being wild, the South American rosetted cats are wild species, not ferals!

The two Bristol females young enough to be used in breeding were placed in Bengal breeding programmes (one with Gogees, one [Sugarfoot] with Belltown). Belltown Sugarfoot produced several Bengal/Bristol litters and one of the kittens was incorporated into the Gogees line. The cats bearing Bristol blood inherited a more robust type, small ears and good rosetting. The problem of infertility was bred out and the Bengal gene pool was enhanced. Several Bengal breeders have lines that go back to Bristol/Bengal crosses, though others dispute the ability of South American wild cats to hybridise with domestic cats. This latter view is mistaken - the modern "Safari" breed is a Geoffroy's cat hybrid. Oncilla/domestic hybrids have been bred in the 1950s or 1960s by Mme Falken-Rohrle. DNA tests may determine the identity of the Bristol's wild species ancestor, but the genes are so dilute that genetic markers may have been bred out.

To my knowledge, no-one has yet bred ocelot x domestic cat hybrids; although I understand that a Bengal breeder hoped to breed his male ocelot to one of his female Bengals, but had not accomplished this mating due to the ocelot's temperament. Because the Margay and Ocelot can be crossed, the ocelot could, in theory, produce hybrids with domestic cats. I have one account of a possible hybrid, but DNA evidence is still awaited. Crystal Pillard owns a rescued female ocelot that that was not pregnant when obtained and had been outdoors. The ocelot was later found to be pregnant and the only male cat in the home was a large Bengal. The kittens were born healthy and ate well and had gold showing through their dark silver and black coats. Samples from the the ocelot mother, the presumptive Bengal father and the kittens have been sent for "parent verification testing".

There is no breed name for ocelot hybrids, though the term "Ocelittle" has sometimes been used.

Ocicats, sometimes misspelled as "Ocecats", are not hybrids between ocelots and domestic cats. They are a cross between Abyssinians, Siamese and domestic shorthair cats and do not contain wildcat blood. Its name comes from its resemblance to the ocelot and does not indicate ocelot ancestry.

MESSYBEAST SMALL CAT HYBRIDS