Cat Breeds: Sokoke

The Sokoke is a domestic cat breed that has been recently developed from the landrace of Kenyan cats called the Khadzonzo.  It is only currently recognised by two major cat registries across the world.

Breed history

This breed of cat originated with the feral cats of the Kenyan landrace that lived in the Arabuko Sokoke forest area.  They were first ‘discovered’ by a horse breeder and wildlife artist named Jeni Slater in 1978.  Her friend, Gloria Moeldrop, brought some of the cats back to Denmark with her because they were afraid for the survival of the race in their native Kenya.  In 1990, more cats were brought to strength the breeding stock and the first cats were shown in Copenhagen in 1984.  In Kenya, an English lady named Jeannie Knocker began gathering the cats and started exporting them to the US and Europe.  These cats were known as the New Line cats.

The breed was formally recognised by the Federation Internationale Feline (FIFe) in 1993 under the name Sokoke.  The breed is currently registered with The International Cat Association (TICA) in the US as a Preliminary New Breed and by both the CCA in Canada and the GCCF in the UK.

Description

These cats have long and thin bodies with long legs.  Their rear legs are longer than the front legs, similar to the wildcat.  They also have an unusual tiptoe gait.  Their markings are that of a blotched tabby with shades of brown as their colour and eyes that can be amber to light green in colour.  The centre of the tabby pattern carries the agouti markings, giving them a salt and pepper markings and their coats are generally short and coarse, with very little undercoat. 

Recessive colours and traits have so far not surfaced often but other colours that have shown include seal lynx point, black and blue with a very occasional longhaired kitten appearing in a litter.  The agouti ticked pattern can occasionally extend all the way to the tip of the tail and marbling patterns can also sometimes occur, particularly in New Line bred cats.

Personality

These cats are very active and love to climb.  They bond strongly with both humans and any other cats that they live with, which makes rehoming them tricky at best.  If they are rehomed, they do take longer to adjust to their new home than would normally be expected from a cat.

Due to their limited resistance to New World cat illnesses, these cats don’t always do well if they are found in catteries or even multi-cat homes.  They also have trouble with extremely cold environments like many Asian species due to their shorthaired coat but can adapt to it with time and proper care better than some of the other species in the group.

Genetics

 

The Sokoke was one of the breeds of cat studied in the DNA project for the Cat Genome Project, headed by Dr Leslie Lyons.  It was discovered that these cats, cats of Lamu Island and the spotted street cats that are found around the east Kenyan coast are all of the same genetics and are placed in the New Feline Racial Group (one of the 12 known groups) that is referred to as Arabian Sea.  This means their DNA is Asian domestic and Arabian wildcat in ancestry.