Bengal Cat History

    Bengals are a domestic breed of cats that stems from early crosses with the small forest dwelling Asian Leopard Cat (ALC), and several domestic breeds (Egyptian Mau's, Abyssinians, Ocicats, Burmese, and Domestic Short Hair's). Through careful breeding for temperament first and looks and type second the bengal has evolved into a wonderful loving domestic cat. They still retain some of the looks of there early ancestors but are a truly domestic cat that is currently registered and shown in several associations. (TICA, the first to register and show the bengal, UFO, GCCF, ACFA, and FIFE, a European cat registry).

In the 1960's Jean Sudgen (Now Mill, Named the Mother of the Bengal) of Millwood Cattery crossed (somewhat accidentally) a female ALC with a black domestic shorthaired cat. Mill placed a the black tom in with the female ALC because she felt the cat was lonely and wanted her to have companionship. Experts told her that a breeding between the two would not produce any offspring. Contrary to their beliefs the ALC produced a female kitten that was named "Kin Kin". Once again the experts said that the Kin Kin would be sterile. Mill breed the Kin Kin back to her father (the black tom) and she did produce a litter, some were spotted, some were black. Due to personal reason's Mill abandoned her work and as far as anyone knows none of today's bengals stem from this early work.

In the early 1970's William Engler, a zookeeper, also experimented with crossing ALC's and domestics. Working mostly with the F1 generation, no known bengals come from these crosses. The name Bengal is attributed to William Engler, derived from the scientific name of the ALC (felis bengalensis or prionailurus bengalensis). Another early name for the breed was Leopardettes.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, Dr Willard Centerwall, a professor, was researching the partial immunity ALC's have to feline leukemia, and in his research he was using the blood taken from ALC/Domestic crosses. These F1's had no use past having the blood drawn and homes were needed for them. This is where Jean Mill got her early F1's. Most notably are Rorschach, Millwood Praline's mother. The breedings in the Centerwall experiments were done by Gordon Meredith, and Mary Gepford.

Other early bengal breeders are, Ken Hatfield (a fairly rare line, becoming more common, Most notable F1 from this line is Asian Nina), Judy Frank, Eleanor Schroen, Ethel Hauser (one of the few successful breeders of a female ALC, Bonzai, notable cats from this line are, Doris [F1], Teamen's Trapper [F2 fertile male]), and Dr Gregory Kent (many of his ALC's were used over the years, including Sergurha Khan and Baghara Khan allot of bengals today trace there ancestry back to one these ALC's).

Bengals were first registered by TICA in the early 1980's, since that time bengals have been accepted into UFO (United Feline Organization), ACFA (American Cat Fanciers Association), GCCF (Canadian Cat registry), ICE, and FIFE (European Cat registry).

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