Nearly 16,000 cats have joined Darwin’s Cats. That’s a lot of new feline friends, but who exactly are these cats? Where do they live, what do they look like, and what traits make them purr-fectly unique? Here are some fun facts and surprising stats about our community scientists’ cats.
What’s your cat’s age and sex?
Your cat’s physical appearance, temperament, and health may change as they age. Age data helps our scientists understand how behaviors and health conditions emerge, evolve, or fade over time.
Just like some traits are influenced by a cat’s age, some traits are sex-specific. For example, nearly all calico cats are female, and most orange cats are male. Health conditions can also be more prevalent in one sex than the other. Knowing how many of the Darwin’s Cats are male or female helps our scientists explore how sex shapes other traits. Data from our community’s pet profiles shows that the Darwin’s Cats are split nearly evenly between male and female.
If you haven’t filled out your pet’s profile in your Laboratory, add their sex and date of birth (your best guess is great!) so we can track how traits evolve over a cat’s nine lives.
What’s your cat’s name?
What do you call your furry friend? Here are the 10 most paw-pular names in the Darwin’s Cats community, with one clear winner: Luna!
What does your cat’s coat look like?
Cat coats are a kaleidoscope of different colors, textures, and patterns. Our Coat and Fur survey asks about thirteen distinct fur colors, and that’s just scratching the surface! Cat coats encompass a diversity of striking aesthetics: tabby stripes, tortoiseshell swirls, even variegated fur, where a single strand of fur contains multiple colors.
Unsurprisingly, summarizing all of this visual diversity is incredibly complex, but that’s part of what makes cats so fascinating. Their dazzling array of coat colors and patterns is a beautifully rich resource for understanding how genetics shapes physical traits. As our research grows, we hope to share more fascinating stats about the coat and fur types in the Darwin’s Cats community. For now, let’s focus on two cat coat elements: coat types and tabby patterns.
When we meet a new feline friend, one of the first things we notice is their fur—is it long or short, dense or sparse? In the Darwin’s Cats community, shorthairs come out on top!
