Here’s a lovely image (found on Gab yesterday) of a male lion with a truly magnificent (and unusually dark) mane.
Lions are usually thought of as the only members of the cat family with a mane, but there must be a recessive gene or two in other cat populations as well. Our farm cat, Ashbutt, has a lot of Maine Coon in his ancestry, and he unquestionably has a mane. Being all black, it’s hard to see unless one gets close to him – otherwise, he just looks like a very long-haired cat – but his mane is undoubtedly the same shape as the one shown above, extending down from his shoulders to his chest and all the way back along his body, as you can see in the photograph below. If you shaved off all that hair, he’d look very skinny.
(Yes, that’s freshly dried laundry he’s lying on. As far as he’s concerned, all warm, fluffy laundry belongs to Cat. That’s just the way it is. What? You want to fold it? Only after it’s cooled down!)
How many of my readers have cats with manes? It might be interesting to make a rough tally of them. Please let us know in Comments.
Peter
Interested to see what you find out. As you know, I don't 'do' cats… 🙂
Most mid- to long-haired 'housecats' have some mane of some sorts. By texture at least, even if not visible.
Tigers have some mane, though the actual term isn't 'mane.' Other short-haired big cats tend to have extra skin around the neck, giving a mane-ish look.
And, of course, the Mane-Coon cat would have a mane. Yeesh, what, you thought it was aboot the state of Maine? Wait, what?
No cats, but we do have a dog who LOVES warm fresh-out-of-the-dryer bedsheets and towels.
Sir Jayne Fluff, Hero of Canton, Majestic as F*ck, had a killer mane.
Must be a recessive gene, because he was Pixel’s offspring.
Our cat, Max had a beautiful mane. His brother from the same litter did not. Max has been gone for a few weeks and I fear he is gone for good. He is one of three feral cats we feed to keep around for mice and rat and snake control. They do an awesome job and are getting just a little friendly with us. They greet me every morning at the back door for their kibble. Max's brother plays with our dogs. We got the puppies at 8 weeks old and the cats were about 6 months old. The cats saw them for the first time and thought, "prey!" because they were tiny. Surprise, surprise, the puppies chased the cats instead of running like prey is supposed to do. It was hysterical. An equilibrium has been reached and they get along very well.
I have a Siberian Cat who has a pretty definite mane. For what its worth, in the domestic cat and dog world it's frequently called a "ruff". The long haired cats are particularly known for it, but several breeds of dog also have a pretty significant ruff, my Tibetan Mastiff has an unmistakable one.