page_title: Egyptian Mau
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Egyptian Mau / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Full face close-up shot of a pedigreed Egyptian Mau (cat breed).
context_page_description: Egyptian Maus are a small- to medium-sized short-haired cat breed. They are one of the few naturally spotted breeds of domesticated cat. The spots of the Mau occur on only the tips of the hairs of its coat. It is considered a rare breed.
context_section_description: Historical evidence points to the Mau being an Egyptian breed. The feline genome data published in the Pentascope document shows the Egyptian Mau to be very closely related to the Maine Coon, Korat, and American Turkish Angoras (not distinguishable from native Turkish Angoras). The phylogenetic tree published in PlosOne demonstrates that the Egyptian Mau belongs to the group of Western-derived breeds. The East Mediterranean/Anatolian group is omitted because breeds that supposedly originate in that geographic area do not do so.
   
  The Mau achieved championship status in some organizations in 1968. There were attempts by British breeders to create Maus from cross-breeds of Abyssinians, Siamese and tabbies, however, these did not resemble the true Maus. This mix became the basis for the Ocicat.
  Egyptian Maus will have either a "scarab beetle" or "M" marking on their foreheads. Those with the latter tend to be from the United States.
  A Bengal breeder named Jean Mill also made some contributions to the breed. Mill was working with the Egyptian Mau's during the time she was creating the Bengal cat breed. In 1982, Mill took a trip to India and spotted a domestic cat "running around the rhinoceros compound" in a zoo. "He was an orange cat with little spots all over him," Mill said. "He was so unusual, I asked [the zookeepers] to catch him for me. Mill called him (Millwood Toby of Delhi). The curator of the New Delhi Zoo also gave Mill the sister of the cat in the rhinoceros cage which Mill named (Millwood Tasha of New Delhi). These two Indian domestic cats Toby and Tasha introduced a feature previously unknown in the Mau: the rufus polygene. The descendants of these two cats Toby and Tasha were often recorded as both Egyptian Mau and Bengal.
  It has been said that all glitter in the Bengal cat, Egyptian Mau and Toyger breeds originates from Millwood Tory of Delhi.
caption: This Mau has the "M" marking on their forehead
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