A Turkish Van cat - maybe this is also the Anatolian cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick
However, the breed is apparently accepted by one cat association, the World Cat Federation (WCF). The German based (.de) WCF website's link to their pages in English is broken at the date of this post so I couldn't easily discover more about the Anatolian from their website but another search produced a website for the WCF Russian Office and they had breed standards for all the accepted cats by the federation including the Anatoli ANA. Is this the same breed as the Anatolian? The letters "ANA" is the federation's code for this breed. If it is the cat breed it is not experimental it would seem, not as regards the WCF anyway, as there is no mention of the breed being experimental on their website.
The German page of the German WCF website also mentions the Anatoli with a full breed standard but there is no photograph of the cat. Neither is there a photograph of the cat on website of the Russian branch of the WCF as far as I can see - a mystery cat....
{This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. It has been modified by en:User:Denizz (drawn a rectangle around Anatolia) and by me (cropped the image to fit this page)}
Anatolia, incidentally, is an area that encompasses most of Turkey and is an ancient term defining a certain region. This informs us about the connection between Turkey, the Turkish Van and the Anatoli or Anatolian cat.
One last thing, the WCF don't list the Turkish Van as a breed that is accepted by them. This strongly suggests that the Anatolian cat is in fact the Turkish Van under a different name. The Turkish Van is a well established breed with a long history (a natural cat breed therefore) and fully recognized by the conservative CFA so it is surprising that the WCF don't recognize the breed.
For that reason it would seem that the Anatolian is the Turkish Van or a very similar breed. On that basis I am not going to go into great detail about the cat here but respectfully point you, if I may in the direction of the Turkish Van page of the Pictures of cats website. The major feature other than the long and natural history is the short coat that has no undercoat (easy to maintain - less matting) and the cat's likeness for playing in water or even swimming in it and of course the famous Van pattern.
Anatolian cat to Home page
Hi It was interesting to read about your confusion over the Anatolian Cat or more exactly the Anatoli or in Turkish Anadolu kedisi. It is simply the short haired version of the semi-long-haired Turkish Van. In genetic terms all cats in Turkey are Anadolu kedisi meaning cats from Anatolia. They all show the East Mediterranean Anatolian genetic markers in other words the Turkish Van, and the Turkish Angora, are exactly the same breed. More than 90% possibly 99% of Turkish cats are short haired and the long haired "breeds" come from them because they carry the LH gene. Actually the Turkidsh van and Turkish Angora are not breeds. They are naturally occurring cats. Nobody bred them. The WCF does recognise the Turkish Van. I don't know where you got the idea that they don't.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, appreciated. I have written about this a lot since. I said that the Turkish Van was not listed on their website at the time I wrote this (years ago now).
ReplyDeleteI wrote this years ago:
http://pictures-of-cats.org/were-the-turkish-angora-and-turkish-van-the-same-cat.html
And this:
http://pictures-of-cats.org/the-real-turkish-angora.html
and this:
http://pictures-of-cats.org/the-real-turkish-van-cat.html
I'd be interested in your thoughts.