Serengeti Cats

History

The founder of the Serengeti is a professional conservation biologist called Karen Sausman. Sausman owns a cattery in California and decided she wanted to create a breed of cat modelled on the Serval; work on this breed started in the mid 1990s. The Serengeti cat does not have any Serval blood and has been created by crossing a Bengal (Asian Leopard cat x Domestic hybrid) with a Oriental. The breeding programme is still in its developmental stages, but there are Serengetis in Europe and Australia.

The Bengals that are used in the breeding programme are many generations removed from their wild leopard cousins so as to make sure the Serengeti breed is created without using any recent wild cat blood. The breed is recognised as a preliminary breed by The International Cat Association.

Behaviour

These are friendly and affectionate cats. They will be timid in new surroundings but will soon adjust and come out of their shell. They are vocal cats that will happily chatter away with you. If introduced properly and carefully to pets they will get on well with them. Serengeti’s are athletic and enjoy being up high climbing on furniture or climbing in trees.