Our Vision for the Bengal Breed

Though small, our breeding program hopes to refine, perfect, and replicate the uncommon, yet naturally occurring marble pattern in the Bengal breed. On our page, About the Breed, we feature a photo of an Asian Leopard Cat with a beautiful marbled pattern. While this does serve as the ideal we are striving to replicate, our inspiration actually came from a very special cheetah that Bobby had the special opportunity to see frequently growing up.

Bobby grew up in Miami, FL and as an animal lover, he would frequent Zoo Miami (formerly Miami Metrozoo) while he was a kid. Eventually, he got the opportunity to intern there while in high school accumulating over 1000 hours of volunteer service with the staff at their children’s zoo gaining valuable experience in animal husbandry. Zoo Miami has an amazing Cheetah Ambassador Program and in the years Bobby was there, they had a very special cheetah named King George. While most cheetahs have a spotted pattern, King George is a “King Cheetah” in that he possessed a rare marbling of his coat pattern.

This article from National Geographic explains the genetics behind the occurrence of the pattern in the cheetah which is the same among domestic cats. Armed with this information, we want to work to help bring this naturally beautiful pattern of these wild cats into our homes through an additional phenotype of the Bengal breed, but with the disposition of a fun, curious, and adventurous domestic cat.