Category: Culture

Culture

Cats in Media: Sleepwalkers (1992)

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Meredith Hemphill

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While Sleepwalkers fails spectacularly as a horror movie, it triumphs as a loopy camp comedy. Sleepwalkers gets crazier and crazier as it proceeds, which is saying something, as it starts out batshit insane.

Nathan Rabin, The Dissolve
The Sleepwalkers movie poster

I identify strongly with the British tradition of Christmas as a time for telling scary stories. I think you’re supposed to tell ghost stories around a roaring fireplace, but I interpret this age-old pastime as reading and watching as much horror as possible. Preferably Christmas- or winter-themed, but this time I picked something cat-related to share with you all. I learned my fondness for Stephen King from my mother, who picked up Carrie when she was twelve and never looked back. Sleepwalkers, released April 10, 1992 [1], is not on Carrie‘s level. But it is very cat-centric, and I had fun with it.

Sleepwalkers was Stephen King’s first screenplay [2] and the only Stephen King movie that isn’t an adaptation of one of his short stories or novels [3]. The titular sleepwalkers are shapeshifting, werecat-like psychic vampires that feed on the life energy of virgin young women [1-7]. They can look like normal people, although their true appearance is revealed in the mirror, and they can become invisible or case their shapeshifting spell onto nearby inanimate objects [4]. Their one great weakness? Cats. As a fictional encyclopedia entry at the beginning of the film tells us, the claws of the domestic cat are fatally injurious to sleepwalkers [2, 4]. Cats aren’t fooled by the sleepwalkers’ illusions, either [4, 5].

As he usually does, Stephen King has a cameo in this movie: he appears as the cemetery attendant [4, 5]. There are a surprising number of other celebrity cameos, too. Look out for Mark Hamill as a cop in the opening scene and Clive Barker and Tobe Hooper as forensic technicians [2, 4].

Plot Summary

In the movie, two sleepwalkers, Charles and his mother, Mary, move to a small town in Indiana after fleeing the scene of their last crimes, leaving dozens of dead cats and a mummified teenage girl in their wake [4]. Within minutes, the film makes it clear that Charles and Mary have a much closer relationship than any mother and son should [1-7]. Also, it’s Charles’s job to go out and seduce a virgin girl to bring home for dinner, while Mary stays home and attempts to fend off the increasing number of cats gathering around their new house [4].

Charles specifically picks out a classmate at his new high school named Tanya that he thinks will be the perfect target [4]. Given Tanya’s terrible choices throughout the film, I think he was probably right. But this little Indiana town is not going to make things easy for Charles and Mary. A local policeman and his mascot, Clovis the Attack Cat (that’s what it says on his collar) are onto Charles [4].

When Charles finally gets Tanya alone, Clovis and his human come to the rescue. Charles kills the policeman, first jabbing a pencil in his ear and then shooting him with his own gun, but Clovis nearly kills Charles [4]. Charles stumbles home to Mary, who decides to leave the house for once and take care of things. She kidnaps Tanya, brutalizing Tanya’s parents and magically stabbing a cop to death with a corn cob in the process (I can’t even) [4].

At Mary’s house, she puppeteers her nearly-dead son and makes Tanya dance with him as he tries to drain her life force, but help is on the way [4]. Outside, Clovis is leading every cat in town to Mary’s house, and all available police units are pulling into the driveway [4]. The police don’t fare that well, but the swarm of cats enter the house, led by Clovis breaking a window–somehow–and they claw and bite Mary until she bursts into flames–somehow [4]. Meanwhile, Tanya gouges Charles’s eyes out, and he finally dies [4]. I think. With her last words, Mary mourns the loss of her son. The cats disperse because their work here is done. Tanya picks up our hero, Clovis, and he starts making biscuits on her arm [4] and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

What’s the Deal with the Sleepwalkers?

The sleepwalkers take three primary forms in the movie. They usually appear human, but when threatened or on the attack their faces take on a feline aspect [4]. Their true form, as seen in mirrors and during the climax of the film, is a furless, two-legged creature with a sort of pantherine head [4]. Charles and Mary may be the last of their kind, as Charles laments, “We still haven’t seen another sleepwalker” [4, 5]. The opening credits hint that sleepwalkers may have Egyptian origins [4], but there isn’t really an explanation for where these creatures come from or, perhaps more importantly, why Charles and Mary are the way they are. A lot of things go unexplained, actually. Why are cats their one great weakness, when they seem to be of feline type themselves? They both shrug off bullets, but one cat and Charles was down. Why did Mary spontaneously combust when attacked by a whole army of cats? Have they never thought about, I don’t know, getting a hunting dog to chase off all these cats?

The premise doesn’t really gel, but it was nice to see cats come to the rescue in a horror movie. Usually, cats in horror movies are either scary scene dressing or the evil creature feature themselves. The only other one I can think of right now with a heroic cat is Hocus Pocus, and seeing as that was meant to be a kids’ movie, it’s pretty low on the scare-factor in general.

Sympathy for the Devil

Interestingly, Sleepwalkers focuses mostly on Charles and Mary, as off-putting as they can be. We don’t learn much about Tanya, even though she should be our protagonist. When Charles reads a thinly-veiled autobiography in their creative writing class, Tanya points out how sad it is that “They were always driven away. Because they were such outsiders” [4, 6]. Curiously, Tanya later tells Charles that she feels the same way, but the movie never explains why Tanya feels like an outsider. She is always shown enjoying a perfectly happy, middle-class life. Really, Tanya seems almost incidental to the plot of the movie. The main characters are the sleepwalkers.

Stephen Hoda wrote a great essay about the sympathetic otherness of the sleepwalkers for Sublime Horror. I highly recommend it. I’m not going to repeat everything he had to say here, but Hoda highlights the implicit queerness of the way Charles and Mary live, hiding in plain sight but also behind closed doors [6]. They are portrayed as unquestionably monstrous but also strangely sympathetic [6]. The first on-screen kill in the movie involves Charles defending himself from a predatory teacher, a much more pedestrian sort of monster with a human face [4, 6]. Hoda remarks that the arc of Charles’s death and Mary’s vengeance is an old story, hearkening back to the epic of Beowulf in the monstrous characters of Grendel and his mother [6]. More mainstream horror cinema is no stranger to this dynamic, either. Consider Norma and Norman Bates, Pamela and Jason Voorhees, Debra Salt and Billy Loomis [6].

Mary and Charles are both tragic and revolting. They are a train wreck you can’t look away from. And they only have each other, twisted and toxic as their relationship may be. In a movie that isn’t exactly Oscar-worthy, it gives you a little something to think about in the midst of all the bloodshed.

Cats in Sleepwalkers

Clovis is listed in the credits as being played by Sparks [4]. Alas, none of the other feline actors are credited, but American Humane provides a lot of information about the cats in Sleepwalkers on their Humane Hollywood website [7]. Lots of live cats participated in the filming, including one hundred of them in the scene where every cat for miles around has gathered at Mary’s house [7]. However, in any scenes where violence was done to a cat, mechanical, replica, or even taxidermy cats replaced live ones for all dangerous stunts [7]. In some scenes, this meant doing numerous partial takes, some with live cats and some with fake ones, like when Clovis breaks the window [7]. The cat that breaks the candy-glass window is a fake, but Sparks/Clovis is clearly the one walking through a moment later [7].

As I was watching the movie, I wondered how the live cats were induced to hiss at the sleepwalkers. I don’t think you can train a cat to hiss on cue. Well, I found the answer. Either the trainers would hiss, which made the cats hiss in return, or they held up one of the replica cats in front of the live ones [7]. I would probably respond similarly if a mannequin suddenly popped up in my face.

Final Thoughts

Let’s be real: this is not a great movie. The make-up and prosthetics are pretty good, and I suppose the effects aren’t bad for the early 90s. But the plot is full of holes, the characters are flat, and the dialogue is…well, Stephen King is a brilliant writer, but I don’t think screenwriting is his best medium. And I’m sorry, but you cannot stab a person with a corn cob. Then 100+ cute cats [7] cover a lot of sins, but I know some people will find the gruesome violence against cats too disturbing, even though none of it was real. And let’s not forget the incest. That’s just disturbing, full stop. Then again, I think that was rather the point. It is supposed to be a horror movie.

I personally enjoy a weird, campy horror movie, and I loved that Clovis the Attack Cat was the hero. I give Sleepwalkers three out of five paws. It was entertaining, and I wouldn’t be opposed to watching it again. It definitely isn’t for everybody, though. I wouldn’t say it ever manages to get scary, but it certainly achieves “unsettling.” If you like unhinged, B-movie horror, it’s worth a watch. Pop some popcorn, snuggle up on the couch with your cat, and tell them what a good job they do guarding your house from sleepwalkers.

References

  1. IMDb. (n.d.) Sleepwalkers. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105428/
  2. Ayala, N. (2020, November 23). Stephen King’s sleepwalkers: Why the creatures were afraid of cats. Screen Rant. https://screenrant.com/stephen-king-sleepwalkers-creature-cat-fear-explained-reason/
  3. Nonstop Nerd. (2023, October 12). ‘Sleepwalkers’: The wackiest Stephen King movie. https://nonstopnerd.com/2023/10/12/sleepwalkers-the-wackiest-stephen-king-movie/
  4. Garris, M. (Director). (1992). Sleepwalkers. [Film]. Columbia Pictures.
  5. Sleepwalkers. (n.d.). Stephen King. https://stephenking.com/works/movie/sleepwalkers.html
  6. Hoda, S. (2019, October 19). Sympathetic monsters: Queerness in Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers. Sublime Horror. https://www.sublimehorror.com/film/sympathetic-monsters-queerness-in-stephen-kings-sleepwalkers/
  7. American Humane. (n.d.). Sleepwalkers (1992). Humane Hollywood. https://humanehollywood.org/production/sleepwalkers/
Culture

The Killer Lions of Tsavo

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Pride of Tsavo lions
Lions in Tsavo National Park, Kenya

Humans are not at the top of the food chain. Throughout history, big cats have sometimes made a meal of us [5]. Although lions typically prefer large prey like buffalo and wildebeest, a 5000-year-old Egyptian cosmetic palette depicting lions eating the fallen on the battlefield tells us that lions have been known to prey upon people for a long time [5]. But one episode of human-lion conflict at the end of the nineteenth century really captured the popular imagination. The “man-eating” lions of Tsavo (SAH-vo) terrorized the Tsavo region of Kenya for nine months in 1898 [1-7] and may have preyed on humans unnoticed for several years prior [5]. The man who killed them, J. H. Patterson, was hailed as a hero [4, 5]. He estimated that the lions killed as many as 135 people [1-3, 5-7].

The Lions, the Colonel, and the Railroad

The lion’s roar was such that the very earth would tremble at the sound, and where was the man who did not feel afraid?

From epic poem gifted to Col. Patterson by his work crew [4]

The British Colonial Office was building a railway from the port of Mombasa, Kenya, to Nairobi, which was then in Uganda [3-5, 7]. Then they reached the Tsavo River. Tsavo means “place of slaughter” [3, 4]. Building a rail bridge over the river proved much harder than anticipated, at first mostly for engineering reasons such as locating the right type of stone locally [4]. So they hired a civil engineer to lead the Tsavo bridge project: Colonel J. H. Patterson [2-6]. Construction began in March 1898 [2, 4]. Very soon, he encountered a problem his education did not prepare him for.

“Our work was soon interrupted in a rude and startling manner. Two most voracious and insatiable man-eating lions appeared upon the scene, and for over nine months waged an intermittent warfare against the railway and all those connected with it in the vicinity of Tsavo,” Col. Patterson explained in his 1907 book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and other East African Adventures [4]. They were large male lions without manes, working together, which is atypical behavior for lions. They attacked at night, tearing through the protective walls of thorns, called bomas, that the rail workers built around their camps, and then dragging sleeping people from their tents off into the bush [4].

Col. Patterson considered it his responsibility to do something to protect his work crew, so he turned everything he’d learned from his big game hunting hobby toward killing the Tsavo lions [4]. But the lions managed to evade him for months. They never struck the same encampment twice in a row, making it impossible for him to stake them out [4]. At first the lions were easily kept at bay by fire and loud noises, but they became less and less afraid of human things as time wore on [4]. The only thing that seemed to deter them was being out of their reach, so the crew went on strike December 1st to be allowed to build elevated sleeping platforms [4]. It was this work stoppage that finally brought the slaughter to international attention [5].

J. H. Patterson and Tsavo lion
Col. Patterson with first Tsavo lion – Photo from Field Museum on Wikimedia Commons

Later that month, however, Col. Patterson finally caught a break. He baited the lions with the corpse of a donkey that one of them had already killed when attacking a camp [4]. He hoped that one or both lions would come back to finish eating their kill, so he had a rickety platform built to keep watch on [4]. The lion did return, but decided to stalk Col. Patterson instead [4]! Col. Patterson managed to shoot the lion dead before being killed himself [4]. A couple weeks later, he baited the second lion with a trio of goats and killed it as well [4, 5]. Both lions were over 9 feet (2.7 m) long [4, 6].

Col. Patterson detailed the deaths of 14 victims in his book but put the total at “no less than twenty-eight Indian coolies, in addition to scores of unfortunate African natives of whom no official record was kept” [4]. The railroad office in London recorded the deaths of 28 railroad workers who fell prey to the Tsavo lions [3, 5]. Col. Patterson later specified that 107 locals were killed, which is how we get the 135 number [5]. However, research conducted at the Field Museum many years later estimated that the lions actually consumed about 35 people during their lifetimes [1, 2]. Human flesh made up about 30% of one lion’s diet and 13% of the other’s [1].

Why did the lions of Tsavo become man-eaters?

Patterson didn’t give much attention to this question, giving only such dismissive explanations as the lions’ incredible savageness and “sheer insolent contempt for man” [4, 6]. In his time and place, animal behavior and cognition were not front of mind. The lions killed humans because they were evil, and that was that [4]. But we have learned a lot about why animals do what they do in the past 125 years. Researchers have come up with several theories of what motivated the lions of Tsavo to kill and eat humans.

Bad Teeth

In the late 1990s, researchers examined the skulls of the Tsavo man-eaters and discovered significant dental problems [1, 2, 5]. The first lion Col. Patterson killed had a severely broken canine that exposed the tooth pulp, a root tip abscess, and three missing incisors [1-3, 5]. The scientists believed the injuries happened early in life because the lion’s jaws had changed shape from the asymmetry of its teeth [1, 5]. They hypothesized that the injuries were caused by a kick or strike from the horn of the lion’s prey and may have made it difficult for him to catch the tough-skinned wild animals lions typically prey upon [1-3, 5]. He may have made a habit of hunting slow, squishy humans as a matter of necessity [1-3, 5].

Lion skull with broken teeth
Severe dental trauma of Tsavo man-eater – Photo from Peterhans, Julian, & Gnoske [5]

The second lion had minor dental injuries: two broken teeth, one an old injury and one new [5]. These type of dental injuries are common among wild lions, though, and the researchers didn’t think they were enough to change the lion’s behavior [1, 5]. If the two lions already hunted together, however, the second lion may have taken his friend’s lead in hunting new prey [5].

Field Museum scientists studied the wear and tear patterns on the Tsavo man-eaters’ teeth and concluded that they had not been crunching up bones like wild lions normally do [1, 2]. Their teeth looked more like those of zoo lions [1, 2]. This supports the idea that the two lions were eating a softer diet [2]. But while there is a wide belief that lions and other big cats who eat humans are usually old, sick, or injured, statistically that is not the case [5]. A study in 2014 of the skulls of lions that preyed on humans and/or livestock, a.k.a. “problem lions,” found that most were healthy and in the prime of their lives [5]. Those that were debilitated usually had leg injuries that made it difficult for them to chase down and grasp prey, rather than tooth problems [5].

Cultured Beasts

The idea that non-human animals have their own cultures might seem strange, but many species have been shown to exhibit differences in behavior between subpopulations that can only be explained as knowledge passed through the generations [5]. Tsavo lions have some of these cultural differences that set them apart from neighboring lion populations [5, 7]. The lions of Tsavo live in prides about half the size of Serengeti lions, with only one male and up to ten females [7]. There is never more than one male in the pride in Tsavo [7]. Tsavo lions are also known for preying on humans [5, 7].

Humans may have taught the lions this habit [5, 7]. For centuries, Arab slave traders used the same routes through Tsavo to the port at Mombasa [5, 7]. Along the way, many of the slaves would die from sickness or maltreatment [5, 7]. The dead and dying were left where they fell [5, 7]. Lions are known for being predators, but they will scavenge, too [5, 6]. They likely learned that humans were a good food source by feeding on the bodies of those slaves [3, 5, 7].

Through the generations, the lions remembered that humans are prey. The Kenya-Uganda railway was built along an old caravan path that had probably provided the lions of Tsavo with much human and livestock prey in the past [5]. When thousands of largely unprotected workmen appeared on the path, it may have seemed like a dinner invitation to a pair of young lions.

Changing Environment

Some big changes in the lions’ environment could have prompted them to change their hunting behavior. For one, lions are ambush predators, like almost all felines, so they prefer to hunt from within vegetation or other natural cover [5]. The Tsavo region is especially hot and dry, with the vegetation growing as tangled thornbush called “nyika” [4-6]. The ivory trade significantly reduced the number of elephants in the region by the 1890s, and fewer elephants led to more vegetation [5]. In his book, Col. Patterson describes literally crawling through the nyika looking for the killer lions [4]. These thickets made it easier for the lions to ambush the rail workers [5].

The pair of lions’ interest in the rail workers may have stemmed from environmental changes as well. Since the 1860s, Tsavo had been suffering from severe drought and famine as well as epidemics of cholera and plague [4, 6]. This reduced the population of wild prey, but it also led to large numbers of dead and dying humans left in the wilderness for the lions to eat instead, training them on the new food source [6]. Exacerbating the lions’ plight was a dire epidemic of rinderpest, a deadly cattle disease that also affects many wild herd animals [3, 5-7]. Rinderpest is native to Asia and arrived in Africa in 1887 through infected cattle from India [6]. The first African rinderpest epidemic killed 95% of Ethiopia’s cattle [6]. Buffalo, favorite prey of lions in Tsavo, are particularly vulnerable [5]. With the lions’ usual prey depleted, the switch to humans may have been a simple and practical decision.

Visit the Lions of Tsavo

Author with lions of Tsavo at Field Museum
Selfie with the lions of Tsavo – Photo by author

After killing the Tsavo man-eaters, Col. Patterson skinned them both and turned them into trophy rugs [2]. In 1925, he sold the skins to the Chicago Field Museum, where they were mounted as taxidermy specimens and displayed in a diorama [2, 3]. They are still on display with the mammals of Africa in the Rice Gallery [2]. I’ve been to see them myself, and I highly recommend visiting the Field Museum if you can.

You can also visit Tsavo National Park in Kenya and see the living lions of Tsavo that still roam the same land Col. Patterson’s man-eaters once stalked. It is one of Africa’s largest game reserves, sporting about 675 lions within the ecosystem as well as a wide variety of other wildlife. [7]

Works Cited

  1. DeSantis, L. R. G. and Patterson, B. D. (2017). Dietary behaviour of man-eating lions as revealed by dental microwear textures. Scientific Reports, 7, 904. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-00948-5
  2. Field Museum. (2018, February 10). Tsavo lions. https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/tsavo-lions
  3. Newbart, D. (2004, August/September). Mystery of the man-eating lions. National Wildlife.
  4. Patterson, J. H. (1907). The man-eaters of Tsavo. The Lyons Press: Guilford, CT.
  5. Peterhans, K., Julian, C., and Gnoske, T. P. (2001). The science of ‘man-eating’ among lions Panthera leo with a reconstruction of the natural history of the ‘man-eaters of Tsavo.’ Journal of East African Natural History, 90(1), 1-40. https://doi.org/10.2982/0012-8317
  6. Tomasula y Garcia, A. (2014) The lions of Tsavo: man-made man-eaters. Western Humanities Review, 68(1), 195-200.
  7. Tsavo National Park. (n.d.). Tsavo National Park lions. https://www.tsavonationalparkkenya.com/tsavo-national-park-lions/

Published July 23rd, 2023

Culture

Mini Blog: Reporting from the Chicago Field Museum

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

I recently visited one of my Bucket List museums (yes, that is the kind of nerd that I am). I wanted to share a few of my pictures from the Chicago Field Museum featuring feline artifacts in their collections.

For more information about cat mummies in ancient Egypt, see my article on the goddess Bastet. The lions of Tsavo are on my shortlist for future articles. If you don’t know, it is a gruesome and fascinating tale.

  • cat mummy
    Ancient Egyptian cat mummy
  • two jade cats
    A pair of cats sculpted from jade in China
  • two taxidermy lions
    The final resting place of the lions of Tsavo
  • selfie with taxidermy lions
    My somber selfie with the Tsavo lions
  • two lion skulls
    The skulls of the Tsavo lions
Culture

The Goddess Bastet and the Ancient Egyptian Cat Cult

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Meredith Hemphill

mehshadoweye

Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Bronze Bastet figurine
Late Period bronze figurine of Bastet in the Louvre Museum – photo by Rama on Wikimedia Commons

Cats and humans have a long and complicated relationship that dates back thousands of years. Their earliest interactions are a bit murky, but many historians believe that cats were first domesticated in ancient Egypt, where they became an important part of the culture. The relationship between ancient Egyptians and their cats is exemplified by the cat-headed goddess Bastet and her cult of feline worship.

The Rise of Bastet

Bastet, also known as Bast or Basht, was the daughter of the sun god Ra and the goddess of fertility, childbirth, protection (especially of women and children), and the home [1-5]. In early depictions, Bastet has the head of a lioness, but as her popularity rose during the New Kingdom, she came to be associated with domestic cats instead [2, 3]. These depictions of the goddess typically show her with a sistrum, a percussion instrument, in her right hand [1, 2, 4, 5]. The goddess is also represented as a seated cat [1-5].

Feline Domestication

Egyptians first encountered cats in the form of Felis chaus, the jungle cat, and Felis lybica, the African wildcat [1]. Both species look a bit like the modern housecat, but it was F. lybica that became the ancestor of the domestic cat, Felis catus [1]. F. lybica is smaller, less aggressive, and lived closer to that civilization than F. chaus [1]. The African wildcat’s striped yellowish or orangish fur was passed down to domestic cats [1].

Bronze Egyptian cat statue
Bronze Egyptian cat statue (663-525 B.C.E.) in the Worchester Art Museum – photo by Daderot on Wikimedia Commons

Cats were not so much domesticated by humans; they domesticated themselves. There were two major threats in the daily lives of ancient Egyptians: venomous snakes and rodents eating their crops [1]. Large concentrations of people attract lots of rodents eager to take advantage of their food stores and garbage. Snakes are attracted by rodents as well as the nice, warm human dwellings. But the wildcats came into town to hunt the rodents and the snakes, and ancient Egyptians were pleased with the results [1]. Villagers went out of their way to encourage the pest patrol to stay, and the wildcats were happy to stay where prey was plentiful and predators were few [1]. A partnership of sorts developed, and as the wildcats became used to humans, they became less wild [1]. Eventually, they became pets, and then, little goddesses in the flesh [1].

Worship of Bastet

Bastet’s center of worship and grandest temple was at Bubastis [1-4]. A major reason for Bastet’s meteoric rise in popularity was that Bubastis became the capital in the first millennium [1]. The Greek historian Herodotus described the temple as a square edifice of stone built on an island with channels to either side and a grove of trees planted in its central courtyard [4]. The temple provided a variety of social services for Bubastis, such as medical care, food, and counseling [4]. Worshippers traveled from all over the country came to the temple at Bubastis which was, unsurprisingly, filled with thousands of pampered cats [1]. The devoted gave offerings to the goddess such as figurines in the shape of cats or Bastet herself, jars of perfume, and mummified cats [1, 2, 4].

Cat mummy in sarcophagus
Cat mummy in sarcophagus (305 B.C.E.) at the Brooklyn Museum – photo from Wikipedia Loves Art Project

Cat Mummies

Oh yes, mummified cats. Pet cats could be brought to the temple for mummification and burial, presumably so these beloved family members could join their human companions in the afterlife [1]. However, cats were also mummified specifically to offer to Bastet [1, 4]. The ancient Egyptians did this with other animals as well, including ibises and dogs. Archeologists discovered one cat cemetery in Bubastis, dating to about 900 B.C.E., which contained close to 300,000 mummies [1]!

Egyptologists believe that the priests of Bastet maintained catteries at her temples to mass-produce cat mummies [1]. They would sell the mummies to pilgrims looking to make an offering at the temple [1]. Analysis of these mummies often reveals head or neck trauma, indicating a violent death and untimely death [1]. Diodorus Siculus, another Greek historian, reported that anyone in ancient Egypt who was found to have killed a cat would immediately be put to death via mob justice [1]. If this is true, I can only assume that these mummy factories were not common knowledge, and archeology discovered a very, very long-buried scandal.

The Festival of Bastet at Bubastis

Egyptian bronze cat with kittens
Late Ptolemaic Period Cat with Kittens (664-30 B.C.E.) – photo from Brooklyn Museum on Wikimedia Commons

Every year, a big festival was thrown in honor of Bastet at Bubastis [1, 3, 4]. Much of what we know about this event comes from Herodotus as well [1, 3, 4]. There could be 700,000 worshippers in attendance [1, 3, 4]. The festival resembled Carnivale or Mardi Gras in its wild revelry [4]. It began with attendees traveling to Bubastis by river, singing and dancing and playing music all the way [3, 4]. Upon reaching Bubastis, the festival would turn into a citywide party [1, 3, 4]. Unhindered celebration with music and wine was believed to please Bastet and perhaps represented her nature as a fertility deity [3, 4].

“But when they have reached Bubastis, they make a festival with great sacrifices, and more wine is drunk at this feast than in the whole year besides.”

Herodotus, Histories, Book 11.60

Works Cited

  1. Adams, A. L. (2021). For the love of Bastet: A history of cats in ancient Egypt. Veterinary Heritage, 44(1), 27-33.
  2. Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2022, September 16). Bastet. In Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bastet
  3. Lange-Athinodorou, E. (n.d.). The goddess Bastet and the cult of feline deities in the Nile delta. American Research Center in Egypt. https://www.arce.org/resource/goddess-bastet-and-cult-feline-deities-nile-delta
  4. Mark, J. J. (2016, July 24). Bastet. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Bastet/
  5. Scott, N. E. (1958). The cat of Bastet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 17(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.2307/3258805

Published 28 November 2022

Culture

Kaibyo: More Japanese Cat Folklore

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Black and white cat on a rock
Photo by Eva Bronzini on Pexels

Last year, I wrote about bakeneko and nekomata, two yokai, or supernatural entities, from Japanese folklore. Since then, I have learned about even more Japanese cats creatures, and I am delighted to share them with you. This article is mostly derived from a book called Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan by Zack Davisson. I highly recommend it if you would like to learn more.

What is a “kaibyo,” you may be wondering? It means “strange cats,” and the term that encompasses all feline yokai [1]. Kaibyo mostly consist of different bakeneko and nekomata, however one of the strange cats on our list today is neither [1, 4].

Kasha (火車)

The word kasha means “fire cart” [1-3]. You’re probably thinking that was a typo, but it was not. Kasha are a type of oni (demon) that originated with depictions on Kamakura Era hell scrolls of oni carrying sinners in flaming carts [1, 2]. The hell scrolls, jigoku-zoshi, were an art form that depicted the horrors of the Buddhist hell in order to scare the illiterate masses into following the way of the Buddha [1, 2]. These early kasha were not cat-like [1]. Edo Period artist Toriyama Sekien drew the first known feline kasha in 1776 [1].

Toriyama Sekien’s kasha – Wikimedia Commons

The cat-like kasha that became the dominant lore is a bakeneko, or “changing cat” [1, 3]. Some said a housecat becomes a kasha because it gained power through old age [1]. Others believed that cats left alone with a dead body transform into kasha [1]. Whenever someone died, cats would be driven from the house to keep this from happening [1].

Why were people so afraid their cat might become a kasha? Because kasha are fiery, corpse-stealing necromancers [1-3]. Kasha descend from trees and rooftops during funerals to steal the body away–sometimes to drag the sinner to hell, sometimes to eat, and sometimes to play with [1, 3]. Kasha are able to raise the dead, apparently not in a happy way, or to manipulate lifeless bodies like puppets [1, 3]. In their true form, kasha are at least as large as a person, walk on their hind legs, and have an aura of fire or lightning [3].

Bakeneko Yujo (化猫遊女)

As the name suggests, this kaibyo is a type of bakeneko. Like all bakeneko, bakeneko yujo are known for their shapeshifting abilities. “Yujo” refers to sex workers, so the name speaks for itself [1]. Bakeneko yujo were said to be beautiful sex workers who were actually shapeshifting cats in disguise, perhaps luring men to their chambers to meet a grisly end [1, 4].

The bakeneko yujo arose as an urban legend during the highly creative Edo Period [1]. The tales were spread and popularized by kiboshi (“yellow books”), very short, cheap, and lurid novels like the European penny dreadfuls [1]. In the typical tale, a customer arranges the services of a sex worker, only to wake up in the middle of the night to see her casting a feline shadow and realize what she is [1]. The reader doesn’t usually find out the man’s fate [1]. Some stories are more grostesque, such as one where the customer witnesses the bakeneko yujo in a feline form chewing a human arm [1].

Bakeneko Yujo by Torii Kiyonaga,1775 – Wikimedia Commons

Though the urban legend started out creepy and sometimes grisly, bakeneko yujo became an object of desire [1]. Men would specifically go in search of sex workers who might be kaibyo in disguise [1]. The sex workers quickly realized they could take advantage of this and would play into the legend with such little tricks as keeping pet cats and asking their customers for gifts of seafood [1]. Today, human felinity still evokes a sense of beauty and sex appeal in Japan [1, 4].

Neko Musume (猫娘)

A neko musume is a kaibyo all her own, neither bakeneko nor nekomata [1, 4]. Neko musume means “cat daughter” or, figuratively, “cat girl” [1, 4]. Neko musume are cat/human hybrids, possessing distinctly feline physical and behavioral traits [1, 4]. The legend originated with the misemono of the mid-1700s [1]. These carnivals included freak show-like displays of oddities, both objects and people [1]. Yokai were a popular subject [1].

One such misemono performer was known as the neko musume, and she was very popular [1]. No pictures of her exist, but she was described as looking exactly like a hybrid of human and cat, as she claimed [1]. Whether this was due to a medical condition or clever cosmetics, no one knows [1].

Neko musume began to appear in literature in 1800 [1]. The increasingly popular stories often involve the frustrated efforts of parents to handle a daughter who looks and acts kind of like a cat [1, 4]. The feline features vary, but a habit of hunting and eating small rodents is usually a prominent feature [1]. In one story, a mother at the end of her rope finally decides to take advantage of her odd daughter’s talents and makes the neko musume the village’s professional ratcatcher [1]. A whole genre of human/animal hybrid stories was spawned from the popularity of these strange tales [1, 4].

Cat girls, as well as other hybrids, remain popular in Japanese media today [1, 4]. There is famously a cat girl in the manga and anime Gegege no Kitaro named, creatively, Neko-Musume [4].

Works Cited

  1. Davisson, Z. (2021). Kaibyo: The supernatural cats of Japan (2nd ed.). Mercuria Press: Portland, OR.
  2. Grossen, S. (n.d.). Kasha. Bakemono no e scroll. https://bakemono.lib.byu.edu/yokai/kasha/
  3. Meyer, M. (n.d.). Kasha. Yokai.com. https://yokai.com/kasha/
  4. Montald, I. (2020, May 11). Youkai manual: Bakeneko & nekomata. Wonderland Japan WAttention. https://wattention.com/youkai-manual-bakeneko-nekomata/

Published October 9, 2022

Culture

Sagwa: The Chinese Siamese Cat

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

It’s probably been about 20 years since I last saw Sagwa, but I still remember it fondly if a bit blurrily. I was solidly a PBS kid, and I would have been five when it premiered, perfectly in the target demographic. Plus, my favorite animals have always been cats and bats. A cartoon about a kitten whose best friend is a bat was made for me. The enduring love for this short-lived kids’ show indicates a lot of other children felt the same way. I’ve found out, however, that Sagwa was a real cat! She inspired a children’s book which inspired the popular television show.

Sagwa, Amy’s Siamese Cat

Writer Amy Tan created the character of Sagwa. Tan is a first-generation Chinese American who started her career as a language specialist for developmentally disabled children (7). She started writing fiction in the 1980s while working as a freelance business writer as a break from her hectic work schedule (7). Tan never intended to be a professional writer; she just kind of fell into it and was really good at it (7). Tan’s first and best-known book is The Joy Luck Club, but she went on to publish many other books, short stories, and essays, including Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, a picture book for children (4, 7, 8).

Sagwa book cover
Image from Wikipedia

Tan had an elderly Siamese cat named Sagwa (1, 2, 5). Sagwa means “silly melon head” in Chinese (2, 5, 6, 9). It’s usually an insult to say to another person, as it implies incompetence (6). As a name for a cat, though, I think it’s kind of cute. One night, Tan had a dream about her cat and how Sagwa got her color points (1, 5). She decided to write a story about it, and in 1994 Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat was published with illustrations by Gretchen Schields (2, 8). The real Sagwa lived to be 21 years old and is memorialized in the dedication of the book as Amy Tan’s “late and dearly beloved kitty” (2).

In the book, the character of Sagwa is a pure-white kitten who lives in the house of the Foolish Magistrate, an unpleasant official with a habit of making up restrictive and unnecessary rules for his subjects. One day, the Foolish Magistrate decides to decree that all citizens must not sing until after sunset. Sagwa was napping in the study, and after the magistrate left, she jumped down onto his desk and landed in an inkpot. The ink got all over her face, ears, paws, and tail. (2, 8)

As Sagwa tried to rub the ink off, she accidentally smudged out the character for “not” on the proclamation. When the altered decree was read, the citizens loved the idea of singing all day. The magistrate was not pleased to hear singing, until he realized they were singing his praises. The magistrate learned some wisdom, and he made a new decree that all cats in his district would henceforth have dark points in honor of Sagwa. (2, 8)

Sagwa Takes the Small Screen

PBS Kids adapted the story and characters from Amy Tan’s book into a television show that premiered on September 3, 2001 and ran for a single season with 40 episodes (3, 5, 6). Tan was a creative consultant on the production (3, 4). The first episode tells the story from the book, and the rest of the stories are original (6, 9).

Amy Tan with Sagwa
Amy Tan and the Miao kittens – Image from tvtropes

The action centers around the Miao family: the kittens Sagwa, older brother Dongwa, and younger sister Sheegwa as well as their parents Mama and Baba and grandparents Nai-Nai and Yeh-Yeh. As in the book, they live in the house of the Foolish Magistrate, who lives with his wife, Tai-Tai (literally “wife”), and their three daughters. The magistrate’s chef and Reader of the Rules also feature prominently, as well as other cats in the village. Sagwa’s best friend is a bat named Fu-Fu. The Miao family are court calligraphers–they write the magistrate’s edits for him by dipping their tails in ink (3, 5, 9).

There’s no specific location given for the village, but clues in the show give the time as the late Qing Dynasty, 1895-1912 (5, 6, 9). Each episode contains two animated stories divided by a short segment of real children talking about their culture and customs (1, 3, 4). In an interview with the Arizona Daily Sun, Amy Tan explained that the show, for her, was about showing kids that culture, heritage, and circumstances make us different, but that we really have more in common than what divides us (1). “The whole idea to me is that imagination is so tied to compassion for other people,” she said (1).

Like most children’s media, each story in Sagwa teaches a moral lesson. The press release for the show from PBS cites “there’s more than one way to view the world” and “you’re never too small for your own voice to be heard” as uniting themes (4). Introducing children to other cultures, especially Chinese traditions, was obviously a priority as well.

Paw Rating

As far as the book goes, I only just learned it exists, but it looks adorable. I want one. Critical reviews I read called it wordy and were quite unkind about the artwork (8). I think perhaps those reviewers missed the point of children’s books, especially with their complaints suggesting that the illustrations weren’t high art. There’s a video online of Amy Tan reading it on Sesame Street, and it looked like a book I would have loved when I was little. Having not actually read it myself, only watched it read to Elmo, I can’t really give it a rating of my own. Here is a great review from a fellow cat person, however.

As for the television show, it is absolutely charming. Although I have my doubts that it’s entirely accurate to Qing Dynasty Chinese culture, it definitely broadened my horizons as a little child living in a very white community. I do have a bone to pick with it as an amateur cat educator. I can let the thing with the magically permanent ink markings go because that was the folktale Amy Tan created. However, no cat seems to have a little of more than one kitten, at least not that I can remember. The Miao kittens are all said to be two years apart in age, yet they are all still kittens (5, 9). Five-to-eight-year-old children are old enough for animal characters in their edutainment to follow the basic rules of their species. Don’t get me started on the dogs that live in Tai-Tai’s sleeves.

On the whole, I think it’s a show that kids can get a lot out of, but there’s room for improvement when it comes to accuracy and educational value. It’s a shame it only ran for one season. It was in reruns so long, I thought surely it was longer than that. I give Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese cat 4 out of 5 paws. Time to look up a recipe for mooncakes.

Works Cited

  1. Coder, M. (2001, September 24). Sagwa shows her true colors–and admires others’. Arizona Daily Sun. link
  2. Haines, C. (n.d.). Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. Life with Siamese Cats. https://www.life-with-siamese-cats.com/sagwa-the-chinese-siamese-cat.html
  3. Heffley, L. (2001, September 3). ‘Sagwa’ a finely drawn tale. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-03-ca-41625-story.html
  4. PBS Publicity. (2000, January 19). Amy Tan’s Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, produced by Cinegroupe in association with Children’s Television Workshop and IF/X Productions, is coming daily to PBS Kids. Public Broadcasting Service. link
  5. Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294177/
  6. Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. (2022, April 17) In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sagwa,_the_Chinese_Siamese_Cat&oldid=1083261392
  7. Tan, A. (n.d.). About. Amy Tan: The official website. http://www.amytan.net/about.html
  8. The Indianapolis Public Library. (2022, April 26). Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. https://indypl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S165C404405
  9. Western animation: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. (2022, April 18). In tvtropes. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/SagwaTheChineseSiameseCat

Published May 8, 2022

Culture

Why are black cats considered bad luck?

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Black cats are a quintessential symbol of Halloween. Unfortunately, their association with Spooky Season is tied to their reputation for bringing bad luck. How many of us have heard that it is an ill omen for a black cat to cross your path? Of course, it is just a matter of genetics that makes one cat black and another ginger or white. Why did black cats get such a bad rap? The history of this myth goes back hundreds if not thousands of years.

Faeries and Familiars

It is hard to pin down a precise origin of the black cat legend. Folklore from numerous places and times likely contributed. In Celtic myth, a fairy called the Cat Sith or King of Cats appears as a black cat with a white chest [9]. Like many fairies, he may bless you if shown respect, but you had better not cross him.

In Scotland, a tale is told about a man who saw a funeral procession of cat carrying the body of a black cat with a white chest while yowling “The King of Cats is dead!” Well, this was quite the spectacle, so the man went home and told his family what he had seen. When he finished his story, the man’s own tuxedo cat leapt to his feet and shouted, “Then that makes me the King of Cats!” The new Cat Sith flew up the chimney, and his humans never saw him again. [9]

The Irish tell a darker version of this story. A man lived in a cottage in a village in Ireland. All his neighbors were careful to keep the fae folk happy. To this end, they left out milk for the Cat Sith once a week. But not this man, oh no. He thought it was a bunch of hogwash. His neighbors insisted that the Cat Sith kept their crops safe and prevented unwanted spirits from interfering with the land, but he would have none of it. In fact, he decided to prove them wrong. [9]

One night, he set out a cut of poisoned milk. Later, he heard a knock at the door, but when he opened, there was no late caller. There was a black cat with a white chest dying on his doorstep. The man just went down to the pub to ask whose cat it was. Well, after a few pints, he started telling everyone the whole story. Suddenly, the black-and-white cat that lived in the pub stood up and announced, “Then that makes me the King of Cats!” The new Cat Sith then ran at the cat-king-killer and attacked him. The Cat Sith drove the man out of town, and he was never seen nor heard from again. [9]

According to legend, the Cat Sith would steal the souls of the recently deceased by walking over their graves. As such, cats–especially black cats–used to be chased out of graveyards in case they were the Cat Sith trying to steal someone’s soul. [9]

Witchcraft and the Medieval Era

Medieval Europe was fertile ground for negative folklore about black cats. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX declared that black cats are an incarnation of the devil [12]. Christians across the continent took the message to heart, rounding up black cats and burning them alive at village festivals as “punishment” [12]. Western Christianity continued to view cats as emissaries of Satan for hundreds of years. So many black cats were killed during the Medieval era that domestic cats were nearly extinct in parts of Europe by the 1300s [12]. It’s thought that the loss of so many cats may actually have contributed to the spread of bubonic plague [4]. No cats means lots and lots of rats. Tragically, the people of Medieval Europe had no idea what good luck the cats were to have around.

Over time, it wasn’t as common to believe that black cats were literally the devil, but rather that they did the work of the devil through witchcraft. One version of the superstition held that black cats were more likely to be the familiars of witches [3, 6, 12]. A familiar is an animal which aids in the performance of magic or carries out magical tasks. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that cats, especially those with black pelts, helped witches to carry out evil spells, spy on their victims, and communicate with the devil [4, 11]. Some people even thought that black cats could become a witch themselves if they served as a witch’s familiar for seven years [12].

The other incarnation of this belief was that black cats were witches in disguise [3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12]. According to one Welsh folktale, a popular inn owned by two sisters had trouble with a thief stealing the valuables of travelers [8]. The lodgers couldn’t explain how the thefts occurred because their rooms were still locked in the morning, yet their money was gone [8]. Word of this mystery reached a retired army officer named Huw Llwyd, and he went to stay at the inn himself to solve it [8]. At night, he kept his sword in bed and pretended to sleep, until he saw two cats slink down the partition between his room and the next [8].

The cats played with Huw’s clothes until one of them found the pocket where he kept his purse. The cat stuck their paw in, but Huw sprang forward and sliced the paw off. Both cats screamed and disappeared into the night. The next morning, one of the innkeepers was absent. Huw inquired after her, but her sister said she was indisposed. Huw refused to leave until he bid her goodbye. Of course, he found that the “indisposed” sister was missing her right hand, as he had expected. Huw ran the witches out of town. [8]

Another gruesome legend, this one from Lincolnshire, England, tells of a father and son who came upon a black cat. Suspecting it of being a witch, they pelted it with stones. The next day, they saw the witch in her human form. She had bandages on her face. She died soon thereafter. [3]

Bad Luck and Bad Omens

In North America, it is still a common maxim that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck. Scholars think that Norman and Germanic peoples originated this saying [4]. They believed that spotting a black cat was an omen of death [4]. The Norse goddess Hel, who was associated with death, included black cats among her symbols [3]. Later European folklore evolved to say that a black cat crossing your path by moonlight meant an outbreak of disease and death was coming [6].

In 16th century Italy, a black cat laying on someone’s sickbed was thought to herald their death [11]. In parts of Wales, an old proverb cautions “Na chadw byth yn nghyleh dy dŷ/Na cheiliog gwyn na chath ddu,” or “Never keep about thy house/A white rooster or black cat” [8]. And of course, vestiges of belief in witchcraft alone have sometimes given black cats a reputation for being evil or bad luck in the Western world [3].

When Black Cats Are Good Luck

The Cat Sith? – Photo by Artem Makarov on Unsplash

Cats are an integral part of folklore all over the world. Books and movies have spotlighted the notion that black cats are bad luck, but many cultures still believe just the opposite. Even within a country, opinions may differ. In Wales, although one proverb cautions against ever keeping a black cat, another traditional saying promises that having a black cat in the house brings good luck and drives away fevers [8].

A black cat, I’ve heard it said,

Can charm all ill away,

And keep the house wherein she dwells

From fever’s deadly sway.

Welsh folk-lore by Elias Owen (1896)

Japan holds cats in high regard in general. The Japanese say that black cats specifically bring a certain kind of luck. Owning a black cat will bring suitors to a woman’s door [4]. Simply encountering a black cat may bring luck in love [11]. Lucky Maneki Neko or “beckoning cat” statues are sometimes black. Black Maneko Neko are believed to ward off evil and illness.

Additionally, some sailors believe that black cats are extra lucky to have onboard a ship [6, 11]. Fishermen’s wives sometimes kept black cats to ensure their husbands returned home safely [6]. In Scotland, a black cat appearing at your door or on your porch is said to bring prosperity [11]. And in a variety of places, dreaming of a black cat or finding a single white hair in one’s pelt is good luck [11]. So it really depends who you ask whether black cats bring bad luck or good. Unfortunately, it is the black cats themselves who may be the recipients of their reputed curse.

Are Black Cats in Danger at Halloween?

Rumor has it that Halloween is not a good time to be a black cat. Expert opinion on the matter is mixed, however. For a long time, some animal shelters have refused to adopt out black cats during October/near Halloween [1, 2, 5, 10]. There are two reasons for this. One is that they fear the animals will be ritualistically killed or tortured for a sick Halloween “prank” [1, 2, 5, 10]. The other is that people might adopt a black cat in a flurry of seasonal spirit, then abandon their kitty when Spooky Season is over [1, 10].

Without a doubt, there are people who hurt animals just because they can. Whether black cats are at high risk around Halloween, it’s hard to say for certain. Part of that fear is clearly rooted in misunderstanding. Halloween is celebrated by neo-pagans as Samhain, an old Gaelic festival of the dead. Combined with the vestiges of the Satanic Panic, we’re left with the belief that witches and Satanists sacrifice black cats at Halloween in arcane rituals [1, 2, 5]. Real witches and Satanists aren’t about that sort of thing. It wouldn’t be surprising for a neo-pagan to engage in ritual magic on Samhain, but they won’t be killing any black cats in the process.

What about those who engage in the sadly ordinary forms of animal cruelty? Are black cats “an easy target for Halloween pranksters who commit violent acts against unsuspecting kitties,” as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals tells us [10]? They certainly can be. But so are cats of other colors, and puppies, and gerbils, and whatever other innocent animals they might get their hands on. It doesn’t have to be Halloween for people like that to engage in such unconscionable behavior, either. It happens all the time. Fortunately, a lot of animal shelters have measures in place to prevent people from adopting an animal just so they can torture it. It still happens sometimes, but not as often as it might. Animal shelters don’t make you fill out all that paperwork for the fun of it.

According to Francis Battista, cofounder of Best Friends Animal Society, “There is no evidence that black cats are at special risk of abuse if adopted around Halloween” [1]. What about the second problem, though? Do people actually adopt black cats as nothing more than Halloween decorations? There doesn’t seem to be any data on this. It would be a hard thing to study, after all. Who would want to admit to that? These days, more shelters are accepting whatever small risk there might be of this and relinquishing their bans on October black cat adoptions so that more black cats can find loving homes [1].

Are Black Cats Less Likely to Be Adopted?

The more opportunities black cats have to be adopted, the better, because there is some data to suggest that black cats may have a harder time finding homes. Lepper et al studied cat and dog adoptions at the Sacramento County Department of Animal Care and Regulation for 20 months [7]. They analyzed six factors they thought might contribute to adoption rates: breed, coat color, age, sex (including intact or sterilized), hair length, and reason for impoundment [7]. Among their findings, the data indicated that coat color in cats made a difference in how often they were adopted. The researchers set tabby cats as the baseline [7]. Black cats were only adopted 59% as often as tabbies!

Happy Halloween! – Image by LorysCats from Pixabay

This supports the common maxim that black cats are less likely to be adopted than other colors. However, brown cats were in the same boat, adopted 56% as often as tabbies [7]. And black-and-white cats, which I’ve always heard are less adoptable, too, were not adopted at a statistically different rate than tabbies [7]. White, color-point, and gray cats were adopted more often, if you were curious [7]. Additionally, a 2013 study at Colorado State University concluded that it takes 4-6 days longer for black cats to be adopted than cats of any other color [12].

The observations of shelter workers count for something in their own right. They tend to report that black and black-and-white cats stay in the shelter longer and are euthanized more often. However, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals claims that it’s all a myth [10]. They say that the only reason there are more black cats in shelters is because there are more black cats in the population [10]. Black coat color comes from a dominant gene, making it a very common color in domestic cats.

Still, shelter staff have their own say on the matter. “There definitely is a preference for other colors in my opinion. We have adopted out more than 10,000 cats and time and time again, black cats are always overlooked,” explains Samantha Shelton, president of Furkids no-kill shelter in Georgia, USA [10]. Whatever the truth about their adoption rate, black cats need loving homes just like all other kitties. Some shelters have special adoption days for black cats and dogs, sometimes on Black Friday or perhaps August 17, National Black Cat Appreciation Day in the US! So adopt, don’t shop, and give a black cat a forever haunt.

Works Cited

  1. Becker, M. (2012, October 26). Are black cats in greater danger around Halloween? VetStreet. http://www.vetstreet.com/dr-marty-becker/are-black-cats-in-greater-danger-around-halloween
  2. Boks, E. (2010, October 6). The truth about black cats and Halloween. The Daily Courier. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20120322011039/http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=74&SubsectionID=114&ArticleID=86024
  3. Brasch, R. and Brasch, L. (2006). How did it begin? The origins of our curious customs and superstitions. MJF Books: New York [2014 Reprint].
  4. Crass, C. (2018, November 13). Black cat stigma. Animal Welfare League NSW. https://www.awlnsw.com.au/halloween-is-almost-here/
  5. Crump, M. (2011, October 25). Humane society refuses black cat adoption during Halloween season. The Daily Toreador. Retrieved from https://archive.ph/20120905073302/http://www.dailytoreador.com/news/article_9bcbeea6-ff85-11e0-8a42-0019bb30f31a.html
  6. D’Andrea, A. (2018, August 14). Black cats: The good, the bad, and the misunderstood. The Animal Foundation. https://animalfoundation.com/whats-going-on/blog/black-cats-good-bad-and-misunderstood
  7. Lepper, M., Kass, P. H., and Hart, L. A. (2002). Prediction of adoption versus euthanasia among dogs and cats in a California animal shelter. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 5(1), 29-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327604JAWS0501_3
  8. Owen, E. (1896). Welsh folk-lore: A collection of the folk-tales and legends of North Wales. Woodall, Minshall, and Co. p. 224-226, 321, 340-342. Retrieved from https://www.library.wales/digital-exhibitions-space/digital-exhibitions/europeana-rise-of-literacy/history-books/welsh-folk-lore-a-collection-of-the-folk-tales-and-legends-of-north-wales
  9. Reid, S. (2020, December 13). How Irish folklore inspired the black cat superstition. Irish Central. https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/black-cat-folklore
  10. Rodriguez, R. (2014, October 31). To be a black cat on Halloween. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/31/living/black-cats-irpt/index.html
  11. Syufy, F. (2020, January 2). Myths and superstitions about black cats. The Spruce Pets. https://www.thesprucepets.com/black-cat-folklore-554444
  12. Turner, B. (n.d.). Why are black cats considered unlucky? HowStuffWorks. https://animals.howstuffworks.com/pets/why-are-black-cats-considered-unlucky.htm

Published October 10th, 2021

Updated June 14th, 2023

Culture

Cats in Media: Milo and Otis

mehshadoweye

Meredith Hemphill

mehshadoweye

Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Milo and Otis movie poster
The Adventure of Milo and Otis movie poster – Image from IMDb

Once upon a time, there was a ginger tabby kitten. He was born under our front porch, the summer before I started kindergarten. He looked just like the kitten in one of my favorite movies, so I named him Milo. And just like the cat in the movie, “Milo was trouble from the very beginning” [9]. Milo was one of the kittens we kept. All three of his littermates were girls, so there was no Otis, but he and his sister Cara were equally inseparable for their entire lives.

I grew up with those cats. The Adventures of Milo and Otis took on new meaning as I spent 15+ years with a Milo of my own, just as ginger and mischievous as the Milo in the film. The two or three VHS tapes and two DVDs people gave us of the movie over the years never let us forget it. “Look, there’s an orange cat named Milo in it, just like yours!” Sometimes you have to wonder about people.

When I thought about doing some articles on cats in movies, books, etc., Milo and Otis sprang immediately to mind. I don’t even remember the first time I saw it. It sort of seems like it was always there. I suspect this movie played a big part in my desire for a cat as a young child. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Of course, no beloved childhood memory goes unruined–The Adventures of Milo and Otis has faced some controversy. This simple and extremely cute movie has a surprisingly complicated story.

Summary

Koneko Monogatari movie poster
Koneko Monogatari movie poster – Image from Yahoo Movies

First, let’s make sure everybody’s on the same page. The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a children’s movie about a ginger tabby tomcat named Milo and a tan-and-black pug named Otis. Milo is fun-loving and danger-prone while Otis is serious and responsible, but the two are best friends. The story begins on the farm where both were born. They have all sorts of adventures, even hatching a chicken egg together, but things take a turn when Milo decides to play hide and seek at the dock.

He hides in a box floating in the water, and the box comes unmoored and floats downriver. Otis takes off in pursuit, and so begins the real adventure as the two friends try to find each other and return home. Along the way, they meet animals both friendly and dangerous, grow up, find love, and finally return home together with new families in tow.

The Making Of Milo and Otis

Milo and Otis didn’t start out as Milo and Otis, but as Chatran and Poosky. The Adventures of Milo and Otis was first a Japanese film called Koneko Monogatari, or “A Kitten’s Story” [5, 8, 13]. The director, Masanori Hata, is an author and zoologist [3, 7]. He owns a private island where he had collected over 300 animals of a wide variety of species [3]. He called it Mutsugoro’s Animal Kingdom, and he wanted to show it all off in a film about his animals [3].

It was no small undertaking. Koneko Monogatari was filmed over the course of four years [3, 6, 8, 13, 14]. Hata wrote and directed the movie himself [3, 5, 6, 13]. It was made sort of documentary-style [3, 7, 13, 14]. To some extent, the animals were filmed just doing their thing. But there are scenes that could only have been staged. After the film was edited together to form a story, music, narration, and poetry recitation were added [13, 14]. Koneko Monogatari was released to Japanese audiences in 1986 [3, 5, 12, 13].

Journey to America

Koneko Monogatari did very well in Japan, and Hollywood took notice. Columbia Pictures took on the project of adapting the film for a North American audience [8, 9, 13, 14]. They didn’t simply translate it into English, however. Screenwriter Mark Saltzman, known for his work on Sesame Street, wrote a new script that is less whimsical and devoid of poetry interludes [5, 7, 9, 13]. Fifteen minutes of footage were cut [6, 10, 11, 13]. Much of the rest was reordered to make the story more appealing for Westerners [6]. The result is a sort of rambling coming-of-age tale.

Obviously, the characters were given new, English-language names, and Milo and Otis were born. Otis also received an expanded role in the Columbia Pictures adaptation [13]. Add a new narrator and a new soundtrack, and there you have it: The Adventures of Milo and Otis. It was released in the United States in 1989 [5, 8, 9, 12, 13].

“Walk Outside,” the theme song from The Adventures of Milo and Otis

Reception

Koneko Monogatari was the number one film at the box office in Japan in 1986 [8, 13]. It was the third highest-grossing film ever in Japan at the time [13]. A video game tie-in was released on the Famicon at the same time as the movie [13], but I don’t think it was as enthusiastically embraced. Koneko Monogatari‘s star would continue to rise, however. In 1987, it won Most Popular Film at the Japanese Academy Awards and received a nomination for Best Music Score [5, 13]. And of course, the money continued to pour in [5, 13].

The Adventures of Milo and Otis wasn’t quite as overwhelmingly successful, but the film still did very well. It received a Young Artist Awards nomination for Best Family Motion Picture – Adventure or Cartoon in 1990 [5, 13]. Critical reception was generally positive. According to The Washington Post’s Rita Kempley in 1990, “It’s totally awwwwww-some” [7]. The $13.3 million The Adventures of Milo and Otis grossed in the United States suggests that audiences agreed [5, 13].

Animal Abuse Allegations

Since the release of Koneko Monogatari, rumors of animal abuse have haunted the film. Australian animal rights groups raised the alarm and called for a boycott [8, 13]. Animal Liberation Queensland alleged that more than 20 kittens died during production [8, 12, 13]. Japanese activists also voiced concerns [14]. A 1986 article from The Economist read, “It’s hard to see how [Chatran] survived. Indeed, according to Japan’s biggest animal-rights group, he did not. Or, to be accurate, a third of the Chatrans used did not” [14].

Pug sitting on frosty grass
Image by devlopenet0 from Pixabay

Activists also alleged that a producer deliberately broke a kitten’s paw so that it would limp for a particular shot [8, 12, 13]. Then there were complaints about what could clearly be seen in the movie itself, such as Chatran/Milo plummeting from a 100-foot (30.5-meter) cliff and trying to climb back up, Poosky/Otis fighting a bear, and Milo being attacked by seagulls. Interestingly, most of the footage that was cut from the North American version consisted of controversial scenes and shots such as these, including the scene in which the kitten’s paw was allegedly broken [5, 10, 11, 14]. Whether this was more about avoiding the wrath of American and Canadian animal activists or making the movie more palatable for Western kiddos is hard to say.

The American Humane Association investigated the rumors of animal abuse through contacts in Europe and Japan [3, 8]. In their own words, “everything has led to a dead end” [3]. In their report, they did note that five Japanese humane societies “allowed their names to be used in connection with the picture” [3]. However, the fact that American Humane themselves did not sign off on the production and were not present during filming is kind of a big deal. In fact, it has often been cited as further evidence that animal abuse may have occurred.

You know the “no animals were harmed” statement you see at the end of a lot of movies? That’s the stamp of approval of American Humane’s film program [1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 14]. The program has been in place since 1940 and is extremely rigorous in ensuring the welfare of all animals in film at every stage of the process [4]. Only United States, Screen Actors Guild productions are required to work with American Humane [2]. Other filmmakers, including international ones, can choose to do so, but they are under no such obligation [2]. Many do, however, for the weight that the American Humane name carries.

So it’s not that surprising that neither Koneko Monogatari nor The Adventures of Milo and Otis contains the “no animals were harmed” statement in the end credits. Instead, they run this odd bit: “The animals used were filmed under strict supervision with the utmost care for their safety and well-being” [8, 9, 12, 14]. Admittedly, that’s not quite as reassuring.

Paw Rating

So, all that being said, where do I stand on Milo and Otis? It really depends. If the rumors of animal abuse are true, then obviously it gets 0 out of 5 paws. Or, like, -1000 out of 5 paws. But there is really no solid evidence that the allegations are true, or that they aren’t. It’s a thorny situation, to say the least. And now that’s it’s been over thirty years, we’ll probably never know the truth.

If I regard The Adventures of Milo and Otis apart from the abuse allegations, I feel like it still has the same charm it did when I was five years old. There’s not a strong plot. It doesn’t try to teach big life lessons–except that seagulls are jerks, which is a good one to live by. But it’s full of cute animals and has always just made me happy to watch. This is definitely intended to be a kids’ movie; however, a word of warning about that. When the kittens and puppies are born, the birthing process is shown in great detail. That never disturbed me as a child. Actually, I think knowing that baby cats come out of cats made it easier for me to later comprehend that baby humans come out of humans. But all children are different, so just bear that in mind.

As much as I love Milo and Otis, and as important as it was in my childhood, I don’t think I can fairly give it the full compliment of paws. It probably won’t be catalogued among the greatest movies of the 20th century, but that’s not why. Even if the rumors were all false, I can’t help thinking that some animal endangerment was part of this production.

I remember several other all-animal movies from around that time, but that hasn’t been a lasting trend. I’m sure there’s multiple reasons for that, but one of them must be that you can’t make a movie that way without some stress and risk to the animals. And I think Masanori Hata et al. subjected their cast to even more risks than strictly necessary. Maybe I just haven’t seen Napoleon or Homeward Bound in a while, but I don’t remember those animals looking genuinely distressed onscreen. However, I did notice a couple times Milo or Otis was clearly not happy. I’m going to give it 3 out of 5 paws. Adorable movie, but it would have been cuter if they hadn’t tried so hard to make the animals act.

Bound and leap, then bound, and perhaps, also leap.

Works Cited

  1. American Humane. (n.d.). About us. Humane Hollywood. https://humanehollywood.org/about-us/
  2. American Humane. (2016, August 26). “No animals were harmed” frequently asked questions. https://www.americanhumane.org/fact-sheet/no-animals-were-harmed/
  3. American Humane Association. (2001, May 31). Movie review: The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20010531234131/http://www.ahafilm.org/oldmovies1/theadventures/
  4. American Humane Association. (2015). Guidelines for the safe use of animals in filmed media. https://www.americanhumane.org/app/uploads/2016/08/Guidelines2015-WEB-Revised-110315-1.pdf
  5. IMDb. (n.d.). The Adventures of Milo and Otis. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097050/
  6. Kamal, N. (2011, October 16). Childhood revisited: The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Spectrum Culture. https://spectrumculture.com/2011/10/16/childhood-revisited-the-adventures-of-milo-otis/
  7. Kempley, R. (1990, June 16). The Adventures of Milo and Otis. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/theadventuresofmiloandotisgkempley_a0a019.htm
  8. Long, C. (2021, January). The animal abuse rumors of ‘The Adventures of Milo and Otis.’ Wide Open Pets. https://www.wideopenpets.com/milo-and-otis-deaths/
  9. Masanori, H. (Director). (1989). The Adventures of Milo and Otis [Film]. Columbia Pictures.
  10. [Retcon Media]. (2008, March 22). The Adventures of Milo and Otis deleted scenes 1 of 2 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goix8a6xMok&ab_channel=RetconMedia
  11. [Retcon Media]. (2008, March 22). The Adventures of Milo and Otis deleted scenes 2 of 2 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W_UbTAaw8&ab_channel=RetconMedia
  12. Rizov, V., Robinson, T., Rabin, N., Tobias, S., et al. (2012, April 9). Yes, animals were harmed: 21 films and TV shows that killed or hurt animals. The A.V. Club. https://film.avclub.com/yes-animals-were-harmed-21-films-and-tv-shows-that-ki-1798230791
  13. The Adventures of Milo and Otis. (2021, June 16). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Adventures_of_Milo_and_Otis&oldid=1016106539
  14. The Adventures of Milo and Otis. (n.d.). Channel Awesome. https://thatguywiththeglasses.fandom.com/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Milo_and_Otis

Published September 12, 2021

Updated July 9, 2022

Culture

2000-Year-Old Bobcat Buried Like a Pet in Illinois

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

Bobcat with kitten
Photo by Hanna from Pexels

The American Midwest is dotted with large earthworks left behind by ancient peoples known as the Hopewell culture. Among their impressive projects were burial mounds where they entombed their dead. Inside one of these, archaeologists found something surprising: a bobcat, buried among humans and in a similar manner [1, 3, 4]. According to Perri et al, who published the findings in 2015, “To our knowledge, this is the only decorated wild cat burial in the archaeological record” [4]. Although there is debate about what the relationship might have been between the bobcat and the Hopewell who buried it, there can be no doubt that this was one special cat.

Who Were the Hopewell?

The Hopewell culture flourished between approximately 100 B.C. and 400 A.D., during what is known as the Middle Woodland Period [2]. The name comes from Mordecai Hopewell, the landowner on whose property the first mounds were excavated [2]. No on knows what these people called themselves, so the name of the first archaeological site was applied to the entire culture.

Hopewell peoples lived in small, scattered villages [2, 3]. They were hunter-gatherers and traders [2, 3]. They also practiced some agriculture, growing crops such as sunflower and squash [2]. Their trade networks spread far and wide, from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast to the Gulf of Mexico [2]. The Hopewell often incorporated materials from such far-away places in their distinctive art [2]. Animal motifs are common in their artwork as well [2, 3].

It was the mounds, however, that first drew archaeologists to this fascinating culture. People from multiple villages would come together to construct ceremonial sites by shaping the earth into walls [2]. Geometric enclosures were common, but sometimes they were irregular [2]. The Hopewell also built conical or loaf-shaped funerary mounds inside earthwork enclosures at mortuary sites [2, 3].

A Case of Mistaken Identity

One of these mortuary sites, the Elizabeth site, sits overlooking the Illinois River in western Illinois, about 50 miles (80 km) north of St. Louis, Missouri [3, 4]. It contains 14 mounds [3]. In the 1980s, a highway project threatened to destroy the site, so archeologists raced to excavate it [3]. Inside the largest mound, they uncovered the bodies of 22 people buried in a ring around a central tomb which contained the remains of an infant [3]. Within the ring, an animal was also interred [3]. Seashell beads and carved bear-tooth pendants lay near its neck, suggesting it was buried with a collar [1, 3, 4]. The Hopewell peoples are known to have kept dogs and buried them in their villages, so the archaeologists labeled the small skeleton “puppy burial” and stuck it in storage at the Illinois State Museum at Springfield [3].

Bone and shell collar buried with the bobkitten – Photo by Kenneth Farnsworth, courtesy of Science

In 2011, Angela Perri was a doctoral student from the University of Durham in the UK doing research at the Illinois State Museum. She was interested in ancient dog burials, but when she opened the “puppy burial” box from the Elizabeth site, one look at the skull told her the remains were not canine. She knew she was looking at a cat. [3]

Perri’s curiosity was piqued, so she analyzed the bones and discovered that the animal was a bobkitten, 4-7 months old [1, 3, 4]. Perri and her colleagues were flabbergasted [3]. There is no other known instance of a bobcat buried in a Hopewell mortuary mound [3]. In fact, this is the only wild cat buried individually and with ceremony, the way a human or beloved pet would be, in the archeological record as we know it [1, 3, 4].

Interpreting a Site Like No Other

The fact that the bobkitten burial is unique makes it especially difficult to interpret. Perri and two other researchers studied this internment as well as eight other possible animal burials in Hopewell mounds in Illinois [4]. They concluded that the seven dogs were not deliberate burials [4]. A single roseate spoonbill was decapitated and buried beside two human bodies [4]. Only the bobcat was buried by itself, with the same sort of care taken with human bodies [4]. The skeleton bore no cut marks or other indications the animal was sacrificed [3]. Perri et al concluded that this is evidence that prehistoric Native Americans had a complex relationship with felids and may have tamed them [1, 3, 4].

The young age of the bobkitten suggests that villagers may have taken it from the wild, perhaps as an orphan, and raised it [1, 3]. Perri believes the shell-and-bone collar signifies that the bobkitten was a cherished pet [3]. If this bobcat was a tame pet, then the discovery is significant for the science and history of domestication [1, 3].

However, other archaeologists aren’t convinced. Melinda Zeder of the Smithsonian Institution points out that if Hopewell villagers regarded the bobcat as a pet, they probably would have buried it in the village as they did their pet dogs [3]. She believes the feline had spiritual significance for the Hopewell as a connection to the wild [3]. Even if this particular bobkitten was tamed and kept as a pet, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Hopewell tamed bobcats as a practice. For now, the find remains significant, but to an uncertain degree.

The Elizabeth site bobkitten was on display this year in the Illinois State Museum at Springfield’s temporary exhibit Walk on the Wild Side: The Story of Illinois Cats. See a virtual version of the exhibit here.

Works Cited

  1. American Association for the Advancement of Science. (2015, July 3). Ancient bobcat had human burial. Science, 349(6243), 10. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.349.6243.8
  2. Banyasz, M. G. (2010, January 22). Who were the Hopewell? Archaeology. https://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/hopewell/who_were_hopewell.html
  3. Grimm, D. (2015, July 2). Ancient bobcat buried like a human being. Science Magazine. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/07/ancient-bobcat-buried-human-being
  4. Perri, A. R., Martin, T. J., and Farnsworth, K. B. (2015). A bobcat burial and other reported intentional animal burials from Illinois Hopewell mounds. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 40(3), 282-301. https://doi.org/10.1179/2327427115Y.0000000007 [Abstract]

Published August 8, 2021

Updated August 14, 2022

Culture

The Nazca Lines Cat

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Meredith Hemphill

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Encyclopaedia Felidae now has a Patreon! Go to www.patreon.com/EncyclopaediaFelidae if you want to help support this content!

On October 15, 2020, Peru’s Ministry of Culture announced that a new carving, called a geoglyph, had been discovered at the Nazca lines site (5). The surprise addition was a cat–a very, very old one. The Nazca lines as a whole are an archeological wonder and a mystery. Yet the cat on the hill is a unique specimen among the titanic works of human ingenuity on display.

What Are the Nazca Lines?

The Nazca lines are a series of designs carved into the ground of the Peruvian coastal plain. Each design is called a geoglyph. Although other places around the world have geoglyphs, the Nazca lines site is among the most famous, and possibly the largest. The geoglyphs are scattered over approximately 450 square km (174 square miles) of desert (7). The geoglyphs include straight lines, over 800 of them, some of which are 48 km (30 miles) long; simple shapes and designs such as triangles and spirals; and a smaller number of animal, plant, human, and fantastical figures (1, 2, 4, 7)

Aerial View of Some of the Nazca Lines

Three groups of people are believed to have made the Nazca lines: the Chavin, Paracas, and Nazca cultures (6). Archeologists think the Nazca made most of the geoglyphs around 200 B.C. to 700 A.D. (1-3, 7). The Chavin and Paracas were earlier contributors (2, 7). There is no consensus as to why they made these massive works of art, but it must have been important to them, because it wasn’t easy.

To make these geoglyphs, the ancient artists removed 12 to 15 inches of reddish, iron oxide-coated pebbles to uncover the layer of sand below (2, 6). The designs are so big, they can’t be seen in their entirety from the ground, so the project required a lot of planning and cooperation. It must have taken a long time, but their work had staying power. Because the Nazca lines were carved into one of the driest places on the planet, they have held up for 2000 years (2).

As to the possible motive for such an undertaking, there are plenty of theories. An early theory proposed that the geoglyphs served an astronomical and calendrical function (1, 2, 7). Later researchers moved toward other theories, i.e. that the geoglyphs were part of a religious rite to bring water or fertility (2). Alternatively, the designs may have been signposts and ritual sites for pilgrims (1, 2). Experts in other fields have offered different explanations. I’ve heard it said that the Nazca lines were made as landing strips for alien spacecraft. Archeologists reject such claims.

A New Discovery

Although the Nazca lines have been under study since they were found almost 100 years ago, new geoglyphs are still discovered all the time (1, 4, 6). Usually, it is due to the efforts of the site’s researchers, but happy accidents happen, too. A crew was remodeling El Mirador Natural viewpoint when something on the hillside caught the eye of the supervising archeologists (5). With careful cleaning, the figure emerged. The 37 m (120 ft) long cat appears to be either laying on its side or standing in profile (1, 3, 5, 6). It has large, round eyes and a striped tail (1, 4).

Image from Peru Ministry of Culture

Unlike most of the geoglyphs, the cat on the hill is not thought to have been carved by the Nazca people (3, 5). It dates to between 200 and 100 B.C., making it to oldest geoglyph yet discovered at the Nazca lines (1, 4, 6)! That also makes it older than the Nazca people. Rather, the cat appears to be the handiwork of the Paracas culture (1, 3). They were around right before the Nazca, and the geoglyph matches the style of cats depicted on Paracas textiles and ceramics (1, 3).

We nearly lost this unique geoglyph before it was even found. According to Peru’s Ministry of Culture, “The figure was scarcely visible and was about to disappear, because it’s situated on quite a steep slope that’s prone to the effects of natural erosion” (5). And geoglyphs are extremely delicate. The reason the Nazca lines site has viewpoints in the first place is because a single footprint can irreparably damage a geoglyph (1, 4). Visitors are only allowed to view the designs from the designated viewpoints or from the air. Fortunately, no one accidentally destroyed this incredibly cool cat before it could be found and conserved.

What Cat is That?

There were no domestic cats in South America at the time the cat on the hill was etched into the earth. Which cat were the Paracas people commemorating, then? There’s no way to know for sure. It isn’t exactly a true-to-life representation. But I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole anyway. According to the International Society for Endangered Cats, there are nine small wild cats and two big cats. That’s according to size, not taxonomy. Much to my amusement, the top comment on the ISEC page for South America was somebody asking exactly this question. They didn’t get a clear answer, though, which meant I had to keep digging.

The geoglyph cat’s proportions and tall, pointy ears don’t seem much like either of the big cats, jaguar or puma. Besides, pumas don’t really have stripe-y tails. So, on to the small cats. Range and habitat can exclude a few. Andean cats live high in the Andean mountains. The kodkod only lives in forests in Chile. Margays and northern tiger cats are found in the interior forests. Southern tiger cats are too far south, oddly enough. That leaves the ocelot, Geoffrey’s cat, jaguarundi, and pampas cat.

Jaguarundis have short, round ears, no stripes, and kind of squinty eyes. Seems improbable. The other three are all reasonable candidates. I lean toward the pampas cat. The body shape looks a lot like the geoglyph, not just the eyes, ears, and stripes. So that’s my best guess, if anyone was wondering other than me. I think the Paracas people inscribed a 37-m pampas cat into a hillside. No one knows exactly why, but if you were going to put all that work into drawing something, it might as well be a cat.

Works Cited

  1. Davis-Marks, I. (2020, October 19). 2000-year-old Nazca line featuring lounging cat found in Peru. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-year-old-cat-etching-found-peru-180976085/
  2. History.com Editors. (2018, August 21). Nazca lines. History. https://www.history.com/topics/south-america/nazca-lines
  3. Large 2000-year-old cat discovered in Peru’s Nazca lines. (2020, October 18). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-54593295
  4. May, T. (2020, November 15). 2000-year-old cat etching found at Nazca lines site in Peru. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/world/americas/peru-cat-nazca-lines-nasca.html
  5. Ministry of Culture. (2020, October 15). Ministerio de Cultura anuncia descubrimiento de geoglifo en la Pampa de Nasca. Gob.pe. https://www.gob.pe/institucion/cultura/noticias/307390-ministerio-de-cultura-anuncia-descubrimiento-de-geoglifo-en-la-pampa-de-nasca
  6. Solomon, T. (2020, October 20). 2000-year-old cat drawing was discovered in Peru’s Nazca lines. ARTnews. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/cat-drawing-nazca-lines-peru-1234574409/
  7. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. (n.d.). Lines and geoglyphs of Nazca and Palpa. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/700/

Published June 27, 2021