Secret of Orange Cats Revealed After 60-Year Search

(sciencealert.com)

43 points | by bookofjoe 1 day ago

3 comments

  • ourmandave 45 minutes ago
    60 years of dissecting fluffy orange kittens is a lot of fluffy orange kittens. =(
    • shiandow 13 minutes ago
      Why would you need to dissect kittens for a gene study?
  • bitwize 5 minutes ago
    They finally proved that the brain cells of all orange cats are a single brain cell in a quantum state of superposition between all of them? Erwin Schrödinger would be proud.
  • thesebas 58 minutes ago
    • rob74 43 minutes ago
      My experience (cat owner myself, son of cat owners and regular cat-sitter) confirms what the article says: orange cats are no more or less prone to doing seemingly stupid/weird things than cats of any other color. More seriously, I think this stereotype is a direct continuation of stereotypes against red-haired humans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_people_...), so it shouldn't be encouraged...
      • khelavastr 6 minutes ago
        I was just thinking how behavioral differences of red haired foxes, cats, and humans from their closest relatives are explained by the same sort of proopiomelanocortin and other substantia nigra differences from weak MC1R activity.
      • adzm 22 minutes ago
        Most likely this is because orange cats are almost always male, and (neutered) male cats tend to be goofier than females.

        I think the association with discrimination against red haired humans is a stretch though

        • mschuster91 10 minutes ago
          Tell that to my female Standard Issue Cats lol. One is food motivated, pretty intelligent when it comes to food and pretty fat, and her twin sister is routinely making me wonder if she's an orange cat with a modified fur. Dumb as rocks but excessively cute.
      • xattt 26 minutes ago
        Tangential and sample size n = 1, but the two orange cats in my life were spankers/lovers of cat bongos whereas all other coloured cats were not.

        There is something different about them, and the red hair thing is a coincidence.

        • Cthulhu_ 15 minutes ago
          We have a tuxedo boi who is a big fan of the butt bongos, n=1 again but still.
      • Oarch 15 minutes ago
        Hey, some of us love and appreciate that red hair too!