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Savannah cats

post #1 of 4
11/5/03 at 9:26am
Thread Starter 
I saw a story on the news last night about the Savannah cats. From what I understand Savannah's are direvived from Serval wild cats and can grow to be quite large. On the show they said that an "F1" was the closest linked to the serval and that there are "F2" cats as well. What do these "F" codes mean? Is it something to do with the genetics?
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post #2 of 4
11/5/03 at 1:27pm
The coding is the same as with Bengals. So I hope this helps.

What do "Filial", "F1", "F2", "F3" and "SBT" mean?
The term "filial" comes from the Latin word filius or "son". The genetic meaning of the word filial is "of or relating to a generation or the sequence of generations following the parental generation" (The American Heritage© Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.)

Breeders refer to F-1 as the first generation cross between the ALC and the domestic Bengal. The F-2 is the second generation cross (the offspring of the F-1 and the domestic Bengal). The F-3 is the third generation (the offspring of the F-2 and a Bengal). The International Cat Association (TICA) considers the fourth generation (F-4) to be a "SBT" (studbook tradition) Bengal, eligible for competition in the show ring and a fully accepted domestic cat.

The following table clarifies the early generation terminology used by the Bengal world today (not including domestic outcrosses):

F-1 ALC parent X domestic Bengal parent
F-2 F1 parent X domestic Bengal parent (has an alc grandparent)
F-3 F2 parent X domestic Bengal parent (has an alc great-grandparent)
F-4 F3 parent X domestic Bengal parent (has an alc great-great-grandparent)
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post #3 of 4
11/7/03 at 6:32am
You're going to have to figure out if the Savannah breeders use this term as the Bengal breeders do (I suspect they do) or as the geneticists do!!

In genetics terms, the first filial generation (F1) is a cross between 2 lines, F2 is F1 x F1, F3 is F2 x F2, etc. To a geneticist, what the Bengal breeders call "F2" is actually a backcross to one of the parental lines.

Ah, the confusions of terminology!
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post #4 of 4
11/7/03 at 6:43am
Thread Starter 
A little clearer then mud! Thanks. It is a good thing I am not a geneticist. I do understand a lot better now.
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