#melanistic bengals

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

One year ago today...

Maraly had her kittens! Happy birthday to Ellie, Inkheart, Sabine, Prince and Roxie!

A wee Ellie! (the firstborn)

how tiny is a newborn kitten? well...

VERY tiny 🥹💜🐈‍⬛

Maraly and her five littles! They're all much bigger than her now! 🥹(also you can see Ellie's spots in this picture!)

Proud mama Maraly. 💜

And some more ~recent~ pictures of the bbys

Ellie! (and Meggie) and yes that's Ellie's paw sticking out- bby got BIG! :D

One of the black babies with their big brother/uncle Gimli. 💜

All three black kittens! Inkheart is in the back, Sabine is front right and Prince is front left! (don't ask me to identify them in any other pictures, I can't, but boy kitty faces look different from girls and I can see Sabine's little white hairs on her chest, those are the only reasons I know xD)

I don't know where my more current pictures of Roxie are, I think maybe my mom has them, but Roxie is also doing great, never doubt it!

Happy birthday my not-so-little littles! 💜🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

[fyanimaldiversity]

Abundistic Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris)

[felinefractious]

🐱 Bengal

📸 Linda Wincat [Wincat Bengal CZ]

🎨 Melanistic [The Black (Melanistic) Bengal Cat]

[thesillay]

not art but i was thinking abt what cats toothless and the light fury would be and these r what i landed on!!! ^_^ i think they’re sooo silly and these fit them so well,, toothless is a melanistic bengal and the light fury is a white american curl

[moccasins]

Eepol u should draw Geno and cat Reaper 🫶

idk if that nickname makes sense on tumblr lmao

anywho have a few doodles

[pawptropica]

What do you think Anna Gram/Dr Blandstone would be?

Anna Gram is a melanistic Bengal!

Dr. Blandston is a British Shorthair!

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

This baby looks just like my cat Diamond did at that age! Diamond was a melanistic Bengal, and like black leopards/panthers they are black with black spots. This little baby's spots likely disappeared as it got older and darker- but the spots are still there! You just can only see them in the right light. Very beautiful little baby!

(If you're curious, the difference between melanistic Bengal cats and charcoal Bengal cats- which are what my babies are- it's that charcoals have white "glasses" or a "Zorro" mask around their eyes and a black "cape" along their backs that melanistics don't have. But! a Bengal cat MUST have a melanistic gene to make a charcoal kitten, so they're very closely related! Maraly did have three melanistic kittens and they are all very beautiful.)

[pangur-and-grim]

I was looking at local shelter cats, and this guy's colouration is bizarre.

it reminds me of the charcoal gene that bengals have, but without the distinctive white goggles:

or the melanistic mutation you see in leopards:

he's up for adoption in Ontario, if you want to bring home a mutant!

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

or you could have. multiple gargoyles.

I'm not planning on getting a cat, but if I did get a cat I'd probably name it Gargoyle

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Kitten update!

So Maraly's kittens are now four weeks (1 month) old and Leeli's are now 3 weeks old! And you know what that means...

NAMES! :D

I know some of you wanted me to give them Wingfeather names to go with the mamas, but the problem with that is... we can't keep 11 kittens. Even I, who am the epitome of a crazy cat lady with the softest heart for kittens ever, know that this is not feasible. We already had four cats before this, and we're keeping the three original rescues. We can't have 18 cats again, especially if 16 are inside our house! And it's going to be very hard for me to give the babies up as it is and giving them names of characters (or other cats I've had) I love will just make this harder. Also, my mom came home one day like, "so I think we should name the kittens after Inkheart characters" and who am I to disagree I love the Inkheart series. That being said there is one special baby kitten with a Wingfeather name but I'll get to her later.

Maraly's babies names!

So this is Elinor (Ellie), formerly known as Gray! She is the eldest kitten, Maraly's firstborn, and she acts like it! She is the biggest and most advanced in skills. My mom said the other day (and I agree) that she acts more like a 6 week old than a 4 week old (and she weighs 1.2 pounds! That's about a FOURTH of Maraly's body weight!). She leads the charge in most accomplishments (except eating, interestingly enough, she was the third to start eating wet food) being able to run, hop, climb, play with balls, use the litterbox and attempt to escape their playpen before all the rest of her siblings! And she is the SWEETEST little darling- loves to cuddle and looks at you with the most adoring eyes. We don't know who she's meant to help, but she is an awfully special kitten and God definitely has a plan for her.

This is Roxanne (Roxie), formerly known as Four as she was the fourth of Maraly's kittens born. She is right behind her sister Ellie in all physical accomplishments, though she was the last kitten to start eating wet food (I JUST got her to start YESTERDAY!). She is a BUSY little thing, always running and adventuring somewhere! She wants to go everywhere and see everything. She's also very sweet, though less cuddly and she likes to try and climb my legs. xD

Maraly's three black babies are nigh impossible to distinguish in pictures so here's just some cute pictures of the three of them.

The biggest black kitten's name is Inkheart, as she is black and easiest to see markings on in the right light (since Inkheart is the name of a book markings=words, I thought it was fun and my mom insisted we name a kitten Inkheart so xD). She was the first to start eating solid food (wet AND dry food!). She screamed a LOT at me when she was younger but now she likes to climb on my lap and cuddle (or bite me, y'know, depends on the mood xD).

The second biggest kitten is named Sabine, formerly known as white spot. My dad named this one after a character in the Star Wars show Rebels since we've been watching it and we all think she's cool. She was the second kitten to start eating wet food and she ALSO likes to climb on my lap and attack and/or cuddle with me. xD

The littlest black kitten is Maraly's one and only boy, named The Black Prince (Prince) and formerly known as white tip, since he has a few white hairs on the very tip of his tail and it's how I've been distinguishing him since he was a newborn. xD He's an awfully cute little bugger, and fiesty, very playful.

All three of Maraly's black babies frequently play together and get up to trouble together. For instance, today they were trying to climb on top of their play tent WHILE their baby cousins were sleeping in it! They also often gang up on Maraly to nurse from her. xD Two of them (Prince and Sabine, I think) have been claimed by a girl who works at a local bakery my mom often stops at, so they will be able to continue to cause trouble together even after they leave us!

Since tumblr only lets me put ten pictures in a post and this is already quite long I'm going to put the names of Leeli's babies in another post (hopefully soon). In the meantime, here's a few more pictures:

*I'll make a man out of you playing in the background*

Meeting uncle Kalmar! (he was so sweet and nice to her! didn't hiss or growl and I think he gave her a kiss here <3)

This kitten is illegally cute *flips table*

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Personally one of the things that confuses me the most about bengals is how solid/'melanistic' snows still have super well defined tabby patterns show up on the body with just, solid points. I have not seen any non-bengal cats with colour restriction do that, it's so bizarre.

Yeah, it's bit like with the smoke egyptian mau: these breeds were both selected for as contrasting patterns as possible, and the "contrast polygenes" will do their work on solids too, and bring out the ghost pattern. If you want strong pattern on tabbies, you'll get strong ghost patterns on solids as well.

The melanistic snows' markings probably show up more on the body than the points because of the relative difference in pigment density is much higher there.

A nice black smoke point bengal with visible pattern: Yagobengals Havanna MoonShine (smoke is a very tricky thing with points, hard to spot)

Tabby point (snow lynx) and regular tabby cats from the same cattery for comparison.

[felinefractious]

🐱 Bengal

📸 Victoria Mykhaylyk [Paramount Cattery]

🎨 Melanistic Smoke [Bengal Cat Colors]

[roukabi]

Hee hee! hee hee ho! My grubby furry hands will contaminate everything you love!

(Designs are free to use with credit, if anyone’s interested!)

Exhaustive design notes/trivia/extras are under the cut!

[Image IDs: a series of animal designs for Vide Noir’s characters. Buck Vernon is a sand-colored whitetail deer (how creative) with dented antlers, a brown-and-white striped bandanna, and a guitar slung around his back. Lee Green is a peach-and-cream fox with a white lily above her ear. Frankie Lou is a clouded leopard with a wavy black ‘mane’ of sorts. Jasper and Hontanx are mutts; Jasper is slender and mostly grey with brown dorsal coloring while Hontanx is more boxer-like with short, white fur and grey patches. Johnnie is a german shepherd mix, with half of his face scarred by black-braining, and sports a red bandanna on his leg and a leather World Enders jacket. Moonbeam is a black lop-eared rabbit with lavender undertones, also wearing the World Enders jacket. Alex is a doberman with slicked-back hair, also (also) with a World Enders jacket and much smaller black scar on his cheek. Toby is a very scruffy rufous treepie (don’t ask), mostly tan with a black head and wings with white accents. Finally, Z’Oiseau is a melanistic Bengal tiger, where his stripes are large and take up the majority of his fur. The final image is a lineup of all characters, with heights considered. Each design is still sketchy, and construction lines can be seen. The artist’s signature overlaps each image. End IDs.]

Well, well, well. It appears I’m at the stage of obsession where I make furry designs for the characters. Because I’m always paranoid that I need to explain myself for everything I do, here’s the comprehensive guide to each design. If I’ve done a good enough job, you can tell who’s who pretty easily. 

Buck: Hmm, now how did he end up as a deer, I wonder...? 

Silliness aside, Buck’s antlers actually play a pretty big role in representing his psyche/self-esteem, as they break off in certain scenes until the end, where they become shattered stumps. Jasper breaks + steals one antler when Buck gets black-brained, which I’m sure can be used as a metaphor for something.

He’s also got big ol’ floppy ears. When I make animal designs, I try to mimic the form of someone’s hair via the ears or cheek fur, though, as you’ll soon see with Frankie, that’s not a hard-and-fast rule. You’ll also notice that he wears a bandanna, even though he doesn’t in the film. This is because I felt his design lacked color. And bandannas are cool. And my brain is addled with Hadestown parallels. 

“But Rook!” I hear you say, “If Buck’s a deer, how can he play guitar? And how is he supposed to hold a gun?” Well, the answer to the first question is that he plays with his teeth. Obviously. And the obvious conclusion to the second question is that he doesn’t need artillery when he has a crown of stabby stabby bone.

Lee: Lee is a fox - outwardly desireable and a character of multiple folktales. There’s not much to say about her design otherwise, except for the addition of a lily - referencing ‘Fool For Love’ with “I’m asking Lily to be my bride” as well as ‘La Belle Fleur Sauvage’. Oh yeah, and she’s way too big compared to the other characters in the height chart lmao pretend she’s the average fox size 

Lee fascinates me, and I think I’m the only one who thinks that way lol. It’s revealed at the end that she had Way more agency over her situation than everyone realized. Did she know about Z’Oiseau’s kill count before getting with him? Does she know now? AFWP says that she overcame the Vide Noir addiction, how did that go? Did severing herself from the drug sever connections to Z’Oiseau’s empire? What does she actually think of him? What are her songs like? Is she okay? Does she regret anything? Is she the same Lee who’s known as Lee Avery in the World Ender MV? AAAAAAAAAAAA

Frankie Lou: Picking the animal was easy, designing her was not. Clouded leopards are native to Cambodia, and I wanted Frankie and Z’Oiseau’s designs to complement each other in some way (I’d made Z’Oiseau’s design before I made Frankie’s). So there’s a spotty kitty and a stripey kitty. Clouded leopards are also insanely elusive, which adds to Frankie’s mysterious ghost facade in the film. 

I normally don’t like adding ‘human’ hair to animals, but when I initially made Frankie without her hair, it really felt like something was missing. I like the way it looks now, and her plumed tail ties it together. The spots are not end-all-be-all, and can be simplified for animation.

Jasper and Hontanx: What better to chase after our Arthurian White Stag (Buck) and Teumessian Fox (Lee) than a pair of hunting dogs? Jasper and Hontanx needed to complement each other in the classic “Big Guy, Little Guy” trope, with the ‘little guy’ (Jasper) being tall, slender, and shrewd, while the “big guy” (Hontanx) is muscular and rarely speaks. Their names even follow the Kiki-Bouba effect. 

I thought about making Hontanx fluffier, but the boxer look fits well, too. There’s some patches of longer fur around his neck and shoulders.

Johnnie: Everyone’s favorite little hurricane! Johnnie gives me exciteable puppydog vibes, so I made him a German Shepherd mix (mix, being “something fluffy”). His cheek fur is missing on his black-brained side, and his eye is a little messed up, but here’s what he looks like when he’s a-okay:

Moonbeam: Rabbits are associated with the moon in multiple mythologies, so it’d make sense to make Moonbeam one. I haven’t drawn her in her fortune teller gear, but I think she’s happier to don the World Enders jacket instead. She’s also got some purple undertones for flavor, and they make her stand out as the only design with a cool color pallete. She’s just got that transfemme swag, I suppose.

Alex: For a character who only appears for 2 seconds, Alex seems to have made a permanent impression on Vide Noir fans, including myself. Strong, tall, and effortlessly cool, I wanted him to look like a model World Ender. This mayyyy have resulted in him looking nothing like his younger brother, but maybe one takes more after their father, and the other, their mother. Idk. I have this whole backstory thing with Cobb where the Redmaynes have this godawful father that Cobb helps them... get rid of. Because Cobb is the better dad.

Alex is the last of this bunch to be a canine, which I’m sure you’re all glad to hear. I don’t know why there are so many dogs. They just have that rugged look to them that suits the World Ender/Bounty Hunter style. Well, these ones do, anyway. Not Lee.

Toby: Toby was by far the most aggravating to design, and it’s pretty apparent in the final result. I mean, have you heard of a rufous treepie? 

I had no idea what I wanted Toby to be, but I wasn’t about to draw another canine. As Z’Oiseau’s nephew, he’d be associated with birds by default, so I started thinking about the kind of bird Toby could fit - it’d have to be territorial, annoying, and/or aggressive.

 Like... blue jays?

 While blue is not a color I’d associate with Toby, for whatever reason, I was getting somewhere. Blue jays are a part of the family Corvidae. Corvidae has birds that are black. Blackbird = Z’Oiseau! See? There’s a connection! 

I scrolled down through Wikipedia’s corvid list until I came across the Rufous Treepie, a bird not only described as ‘opportunistic’, but ironically has a symbiotic relationship with local deer populations... It’s also large enough to get stabbed by an antler from a certain less-willing-to-cooperate deer. 

So that’s what I went with. Toby’s meant to look more like a fledgling, given the scruffiness. I took some creative liberties with facial markings, but like. Who cares. 

“But Rook,” you say, “If Toby’s a bird, and Z’Oiseau isn’t, how are they related?” Well, the obvious conclusion to come to here is that you should stop asking questions.

Z’Oiseau: It’s Zazo time! With a name like 'bird’, you’d expect him to be a bird. But I figured that making him a big cat would play very well into the irony of his name and would present him as a real threat. After all, you didn’t find Tobey very scary, did you? And who names a bird “bird”? 

Because Z’Oiseau’s original name, Zozo, is Euskara, a language spoken in the Pyrenees, that was my first place to look for animals. Nothing jumped out to me, though, so I moved on to looking up big cat species and hoping for the best. Then an idea came to me - what about a tiger, but with reversed stripes? It’d fit the reasoning behind the “blackbird” name, and he’d be the most powerful big cat out there. To my surprise, melanistic tigers do exist, and they’re really cool. I picked the Bengal tiger of India for Z’Oiseau, as most of the ‘black tigers’ have been spotted there. 

Z’Oiseau’s stripes can be simplified for animation or what-have-you. Or you can draw every individual stripe as presented in the photo, I’m not gonna stop you.

Well, that’s that! Might make Tubbs Tarbell and Cobb Avery later. For now, as a reward for making it this far, here’s some silly scribbles + shitposting:

[roseate-felidae]

Learning new cat colour genetics. Hybrid introduced genes.

Basically, I learnt most of the genetics of cats and some rodents from a book called the Colour Inheritance in Small Livestock by Roy Robinson. Printed 2013.

But new genes have been discovered since, part 4.

Bengal (Asian leopard cat, ALC)-

Come in Spotted and marbled. Ocelli refers to white spots on back of ears f1-f3.

Brown- normal, but can be chocolate (choc not black markings) and golden (with Inhibitor gene)

Snow bengals- Seal lynx point (tabby point) (cs cs), seal mink (cb,cs), seal sepia (cb,cb). Eyes are blue, aqua and green or gold I'm that order.

Silver bengals- inhibitor gene, ground is white to steel grey. Markings dark grey to jet black.

Charcoal- modification of tabby gene, occur as Alc asip mismatches with domestic asip gene. So come in charcoal brown, charcoal snow and charcoal silver. Barely any rufousing, black markings. "Zoro" Mask on nose and face.

Sorrel- lighter shades of brown, similar to cinnamon. Is corin gene

Wheaten- non rufous sorrel

Whited- white fronts, face and undersides. From Asian leopard cat. Not linked to white spotting.

Melanistic- black self

Blue- ground pale blue grey to slate blue grey. Markings are medium to dark blue. Not recognised in bengals.

Albino- white with red/purple eyes. Pink paw pads. May have come from Asian leopard cat

Glitter- Fgfr2 mutation in domestic cats. Soft and iridescent fur. Caused by hollow spaces in hairs. Two versions. Mica looks like tiny "silicate crystals" in the hair tips. Recessive. Not on solid cats

Satin- Is whole hair shaft and have larger air cells in hairs. Causes translucency. Recessive.

Patina - dark hairs blur the basic black/ brown pattern on the back/shoulder. Causing it to look fading

Cashmere/Pardino- long haired bengal

Savannah- (serval)-

Bengal colours

Servaline- a tabby that has small freckle spots. Instead of big spots

Chausie- (jungle cat)-

Grizzle- silver tipped black. Type of glitter. From Jungle cats

Geoffery cat and oncilla hybrids had fertility issues. Margay Hybrid resemble bengal.

[d10r]

The melanistic bengal im trying to buy 😭

[zenigatakeibu]

PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE KNOWLEDGE.

specific to his yakuza au! consider this a continual wip. (tw for brief mentions of child death)

🐯 PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. (information anyone can know/learn/have access to)

[ DATA EXPUNGED ]

🐯 SEMI-PRIVATE KNOWLEDGE. (information only those who are close to him can know/learn/have access to)

Koichi Zenigata is the Fourth Chairman of the Izumi clan, the largest and wealthiest yakuza syndicate in Tokyo.

Waged a bloody all-out war against a rival clan, the Ita, a month into his leadership. The Izumi eventually won out, and those of the Ita who were not killed/had not fled were absorbed into the Izumi's ranks.

Provides protection and charity to civilians who live within his territory.

Very "old school," honorable, and expects his clan members to act the same.

His duality as both a protector and a force to be reckoned is with what earned him the title "Tiger of Tokyo."

Manages an exclusive jazz club (the Roundhouse) and a fight club (the Snake Pit) which resides beneath it.

His clan deals in weapons smuggling, illegal passports, gambling rings, loan sharking, extortion/blackmail, political bribes, and assassinations-- among other things.

Owns two pseudo-melanistic Bengal tigers and has raised them since they were cubs.

Has an irezumi back piece. It depicts a roaring tiger, framed by black waves, clouds, and red flowers. The front view has two tiger’s paws– their claws outstretched– coming down over his pectorals, also framed by waves, clouds, and flowers.

Proficient in judo, karate, and general hand-to-hand combat. Is also an incredible marksmen and skilled with knives/blades.

Controls a good portion of the MPD and has connections within Interpol.

🐯 PRIVATE KNOWLEDGE. (information only a VERY select trusted few know/have access to)

Following Zenigata's rise to power, the Ita clan saw this transitional period as a chance to wipe him/his clan out and gain full control of Tokyo. They kidnapped his wife and daughter, preparing to exchange their safety for Zenigata's life, however when Zenigata met them to agree to their terms, they instead executed his family in front of him. Zenigata snapped and killed his captors, proceeding to then perform yubitsume on his left hand's ring finger in his lost family's memory. This is what kickstarted the war against the Ita clan.

Is an extremely paranoid person, will not hesitate to make an example of those he views as a threat.

Has been the target of over 20 assassination attempts, the most notable being the reason for the deep scar across his neck.

Is a huge softy deep down. Struggles with expressing his more sensitive side due to the death of his family.