This is Nessa, She is a Safari. Which is an Egyptian Mau and Geoff cross.
Ness is a beauty! However, I'm just showing her off here. She is not for sale.
Nessa is being breed to Stradivarius one of my Geoff males, she will soon be producing 75% Safaris! Were excitted here at the "Cattitude Ranch"!
The Safari cat is a relatively new hybrid. Safari cats are very, very hard to breed. The were originally bred back in the 1970's for use in Leukemia research. The reason they breed them for research and also the reason they are difficult to breed is due to the difference in the number of chromosomes in the breeds. You see the domestic cat (in this case an Egyptian Mau) carries 38 chromosomes. However, the Geoffroy cat has only 36! The resulting Hybrid Safari has 37. The Safari is not just a new hybrid they are a new species!!. This is also what increases their size dramatically.
Geoffs range from 6-9 lbs; the Egyptian Mau 8-12 lbs; The F1 males are more likely to be 20-25+ lbs!
They are VERY, VERY rare only 100 have been registered in the US. As of Febuary 2013. They are highly intelligent and very fast, and they are considerded to have the most affectionate personality of all hybrids.
I think as difficult as these guys are to get....they will remain a the rarest of hybrid cats.
