page_title: Cyprus cat
section_title: Aphrodite breed development
hierarchical_section_title: Cyprus cat / Aphrodite breed development
caption_attribution_description: English: Cyprus long hair cat with a Cyprus short hair cat.
context_page_description: Cyprus cats, also known as Cypriot cats, Saint Helen cats, and Saint Nicholas cats, are a landrace of domestic cat found across the island of Cyprus. A standardized breed is being developed from them; among cat fancier and breeder organizations, it is presently fully recognized by the World Cat Federation, with breeding regulated by the World Cat Congress, under the name Aphrodite's Giant; and provisionally by The International Cat Association as the Aphrodite. All three organizations permit shorthaired and semi-longhaired versions and no out-crossing to other breeds.
  The earliest known written record of cats on Cyprus refers to a story of Saint Helen of Constantinople sending two boatloads of cats to a monastery on the island from Egypt or Palestine in the 4th century A.D. to deal with an infestation of snakes. Cats on Cyprus have been able to breed for centuries with comparatively little outside influence; this has resulted in a distinct, locally adapted variety of cat which appears to have developed as a feral population in the inner highlands, though is found throughout the island in modern times.
context_section_description: Local breeders began in 2006 to attempt to establish a standardized breed from local feral cats.  In 2008, a World Cat Federation (WCF) all-breeds judge visited Cyprus to work at a cat show and was introduced to a breeder of purebred cats developed in this trial breeding program from the Cyprus cats. Considering the cats distinct, he wrote a standard of points and named them Aphrodite Giant. The president and board members of WCF advised that these Aphrodite cats should be shown outside Cyprus to become better known within the cat fancy, but did not immediately accept the nascent breed. Subsequently, a group of interested people in Cyprus decided to form a club, which was named the Cyprus Cats National Breed Association (CyCNBA), which applied for government approval and started functioning in late 2009. CyCNBA applied to affiliate to the World Cat Federation in April 2012.
  In addition, it was agreed that a letter be sent to a leading specialist in cat genetics, Leslie Lyons of University of California, Davis, asking whether she would agree to DNA-test a selection of Cyprus cats to see whether it was possible to genetically define them as a breed. The professor, who intended shortly to begin a further study of Turkish Van and Turkish Angora cats (whose ancestry has long been disputed), agreed to study samples submitted from Cyprus. A total of 248 cats were studied, including a number of random-bred Cyprus cats from the Malcolm Cat Sanctuary, for comparison. "All cats were considered in one large analysis. The analysis partitioned the cats based solely on genetic variation, not by any other identification." (L. Lyons – 2 January 2012) The January 2012 report concluded that "Cyprus cats are a distinct population within the Mediterranean" and that a "breed from Cyprus could be developed".
  On 1 July 2012, the cat became a fully recognised breed of the World Cat Federation, originally as just the Aphrodite's Giant Longhair (though it is actually in the organization's semi-longhaired division,)after the CyCNBA attended the WCF General Assembly in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and applied for recognition of the cats in April 2012. Today, WCF also recognizes a short-haired variant.
  In September 2017, The International Cat Association (TICA) recognized the cats, under the name Aphrodite, as a "preliminary new breed", in its own breed group and with both shorthaired and semi-longhaired varieties. Some TICA members have started breeding programs for the Aphrodite in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
  In breeder terminology, this constitutes a natural or traditional breed – one developed from local stock to preserve its key characteristics, rather than created by breeders to have new features.
caption: A semi-long-haired adult male
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