#abundism

I found this cool lookin' cat on reddit when he was posted in the tortie sub, but his markings are way too symmetrical to be a tortie imo. He looks more like a very densely striped black tabby!

He actually really reminds me of the cats that have been called psuedomelanistic on Messybeast, so maybe it's some kind of abundism/charcoal pattern? What are your thoughts?

said cats on Messybeast:

Yeah, this is definitely not a tortie and imo totally the same thing as those messybeast cats. Good catch! They all have the gray crescent triangles above the eyes, rings around their neck and striped legs. This is systematic.

My personal opinion is that it's probably not directly related to charcoal (as in, it has not much to do with the leopard cat), at most it's an unrelated ASIP mutation. Both are a kind of pseudomelanism/abundism (if we as use these words in a strictly descriptive, "blacker than usual but not entirely black animal" meaning, and to my understanding that's the common use), but that doesn't really explains the genetics.

so fun facts with gold (take with grain of salt):

we all know about the albino condition, but what about lutino? the lutino mutation affects birds that can have a yellow color. it is genetically identical to albinism, but instead of making the bird white, it makes them yellow. Together they are known as the Ino mutation. Other animals can have this too but it most commonly occurs in birds, and the term lutino mainly refers to birds. Other animals are called xanthochromistic.

There is also leucism. In leucistic animals, the pigment cells rack up defects during their growth. Not all pigment cells are affected, meaning that leucistic animals can still have color and often retain color in parts of their skin and eyes. This is where piebalds come from!

Melanistic animals are completely black. They produce an excess of melanin, darkening their features drastically. This is the condition black panthers have.

One bird takes it further: the Ayam Cemani chicken breed. They have hyperpigmentation, which makes their bones and internal organs black as well. pretty metal little birdies

Abundism and pseudomelanism can make an animal appear completely melanistic, but they are not. They will usually have some lighter patches, which melanistic animals do not have.

Melanism and associated conditions are usually much less dangerous for the animal than albinism. Albinism basically means some animals get fuckin cooked real quick by the sun. Gators and crocs with albinism, for example, don’t last very long outside captivity. 24 hours tops.

Also fun bird color fact: The darker a bird feather is, the more resistant to damage it is. This means that albino birds get raggedy feathers much quicker. You might see a lot of birds with black feather tips specifically because that keeps them from getting damaged as easily. You may find that a lot of worn seagull feathers still have the black tips intact, or at least more intact than the rest of the feather.

Wow, yeah, that is a funky cat! I can get behind the diagnosis of "mackerel with abundism". Abundism is a descriptive term only and so doesn't tell us what's really going on, but it's as close as we can get to naming what this is.

A bunch of stunning mutants.

The top images show zebra, leopard and tigers with pseudomelanism/abundism - the same type of mutation as seen in king cheetahs (but I shall resist the urge to cheetah-spam and instead show some individuals from underappreciated/under-recognised pseudomelanistic species)