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The Bristol Bengals
By Gene Ducote
(Thanks to Gene Ducote of (GOGEES)for helping us understand this wonderful and mysterious line.)
In the early history of the Bengal breed, our gene pool was dangerously small. We only had the bloodlines of one Leopard Cat, and his descendents from 2 daughters. There were numerous brother/sister breedings, done in order to capture and intensify the "look" of the Bengal we were striving for. But we all knew that if we continued such tight inbreeding, we would be jeopardizing the health and stamina of future generations. So we were always on the lookout for a compatible outcross, besides the Egyptian Mau, which had a lot of undesirable characteristics we were trying to steer away from.
In 1991, Solveig Pflueger, TICA's geneticist, happened to hear about some cats that were discovered at a private residence in Texas. On investigation, she found that these cats were registered with TICA as "Bristol Cats". This was a breed that predated the Bengals, and which everyone thought had died out because of infertility problems. Von Pilcher, an early and very reputable Bengal breeder, took a trip to see these Bristols and try to learn of their history. The most interesting cat he saw was an old fellow, Cajun, who was supposedly the sire of this colony of Bristol cats.
The cats in this cattery were not very fertile, producing only an average of 2 litters per year out of a total of about 10 cats.
Cajun not only had rosettes very similar to that of the new world spotted cats, like the ocelot and margay, but he had a very white ground color on his chest and belly, very small and rounded ears, and a voice very similar to that of an ocelot. His pattern, color, head structure, and voice were definitely of non-domestic origin. The other cats in the colony were not as striking as Cajun, but their behavior was like that of other hybrid cats. Also, some of them also exhibited the peculiar black smoky charcoal color known to occasionally appear in F1 and F2 Bengals, but not in pure domestics.
So while the documented history of the Bristol cats is unproven, based on what Von saw, he felt very sure that these cats were certainly hybrid cats of some kind. Cajun and the other cats demonstrated features known only to exist in three species of new world spotted cats: the ocelot, the margay, and the oncilla.
Dr. Pfleuger saw the potential for use of the Bristols in the development of the Bengal breed, as these cats had many of the desirable qualities that we valued, with their large bones, rosetted coats, and the desirable head structure. She made further inquiries, and found photos of a wild cat that was believed to have been used in crossings with domestics, to produce the Bristols. The photos showed an ocelot-looking feral cat, breeding a domestic shorthair cat.
Ms. Pflueger got two females from this colony of Bristols (the others were too old to be useful in a breeding program), and placed one with me (Gogees Bengals) and one with Karen Austin (Belltown Bengals)of Connecticut. My female never produced any offspring, but the one with Karen, Belltown Sugarfoot, did produce several litters. She sent one of the kittens to me, and I incorporated that line into my Bengal breeding program. I found that the Bengals carrying Bristol blood, tended to have substantial bone, small ears, and a great potential for producing rosettes.
Now, we are many generations down from the original Bristol/Bengal cross, to the point that they are mostly Bengal. There have been no infertility problems this far removed from the Bristols. But they did have a dramatic influence on the Bengals, plus helped diversify the genepool.
Several breeders are still working with lines that go back to the Bristol/Bengals, and claim that they have had very successful results. Others argue, however, that there are no South American feral species of cats that are able to reproduce with domestic cats. In effort to sort this out, there are now efforts being made to have DNA testing and coding on Bengals who have descended from the Bristol lines. We hope to prove that there are some genetic codes present in these Bengals, which can be traced back to one of the wild species. At this point however, the true story of the Bristol cat is undocumented and unproven, and we can only guess at their heritage.
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