#Agouti

[felinefractious]

🐱 Abyssinian

📸 Nils Jacobi [Amunzula]

🎨 Sorrel [Abyssinian Colours]

[odddogs]

da link broke so enjoy, i saved him before he was lost to the internet

[ratatism]

took this picture of circe in the sun today and her colouring is so beautiful, we need more love for agouti rats!!

[vintagewildlife]

Agouti By: San Diego Zoo From: Living Mammals of the World 1969

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Is the gene that makes housecats black/solid the same gene that makes panthers black?

Depends on the species! Leopards have a recessive ASIP mutation just like housecats, but jaguars have a dominant MC1R mutation, the same gene that makes yellow/red variants in a lot of animals. Gain of function MC1R mutations are (co)dominant and make the animal produce more eumelanin, loss of function mutations are recessive and result in more phaeomelanin. (For ASIP, it's the opposite.)

Both genes are responsible for melanism in several felids:

ASIP: domestic cat, leopard, asian golden cat, pampas cat, kodkod

MC1R: jaguar, jaguarundi*, geoffroy's cat

*This one is interesting, because the reddish variant seems to be the original and the more common dark is the later mutation.

And the species with still unknown genetics: serval, oncilla, marbled cat, bobcat, southern tigrina, margay, jungle cat, african golden cat, african wild cat**

**Technically i think it's possible that the melanism of domestic cats is a direct heritage of the african wildcats from before domestication OR that the melanism of african wildcats is an evidence of crossbreeding with domestic cats; either way they would have the same ASIP mutation.

[feather-bone]

[ID: an illustration of a brown tailless rodent facing to the left, standing with one paw slightly raised. It is surrounded by simple leaves and daisies on a blue background. End.]

Agouti. A diurnal, rodent from mainly Central and South America that grows up to around 10lbs. They eat fruits, seeds, roots, and leaves, primarily, and are swift runners and strong swimmers.

[critter-creature-or-beast]

Submitted for classification by @lily-blade

"Red-rumped agouti. Image source: Wikipedia"

By Alastair Rae from London, United Kingdom - Red-rumped Agouti, CC BY-SA 2.0

[bardicspirit]

3 pretty ladies 🐀🐀🐀

[ripinpipsmousery]

The mouse of the week is WHEEZER 2 for HAVING THE BIGGEST LITTER and ESTIMATED VALUE $186,000 DOLLARS

[mau-mao]

All Orange Cats Are Tabby Cats!

The "agouti" gene that gives cats their tabby pattern is also responsible for the red pigment gene that gives orange cats their color.

When the red pigment gene is expressed, the non-agouti gene doesn't work.

All orange cats are tabbies because they have the agouti gene, but not all tabbies are orange because they may not have the red pigment gene.

[snototter]

A Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) in Colón, Panama

by marlin harms

[felinefractious]

🐱 Abyssinian

📸 Spyzoo [Abyunicorn]

🎨 Blue Agouti

[odddogs]

i'm sure he'll look better when his coat grows back , but nothing will ever diminish that eager smile

[piggiebelles]

He's so pleased with himself, farting in my face... Stinky as hell

[onlytiktoks]

[amber-tortoiseshell]

do u know why red cats r always tabbies? i know they are but i haven’t seen the reason!

(Pulling this ahead, warriors ask game continues tomorrow)

I've answered a similar question before here.

To summarize it:

Every cat has a tabby pattern (blotched, mackerel ect).

The solid mutation increases the eumelanin production, so the low-eumelanin areas of the pattern (the "background") becomes very dark too. This is what makes the pattern disappear: the mutation doesn't turn the tabby pattern off but "fills it up".

The orange mutation makes the production of eumelanin impossible.

Therefore in solid reds there's no eumelanin production to increase, so the solid mutation has no effect on the phenotype.