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Chinese cat grow wings

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One animal started to develop the "wings" during a period of hot weather in Sichuan, a large province in southern China where a devastating earthquake struck this spring.

 

Although the growths appear fluffy, they contain bone. But veterinary experts say that despite the hard inner core, the flaps do not harm the cat's quality of life or safety.

 

Several animals were photographed with the furry protuberances by a local newspaper photographer.

 

"At first they were just two bumps, but they started to grow quickly, and after a month there were two wings," said one cat's owner, who was only identified as Feng.

 

"Many female cats in heat came to harass him, and then the wings started to grow," she told the local Huashang News.

 

Although Feng attributed her pet's condition to the stress of a feline love life and the hot Sichuan summer. However, scientists said the wings had a less romantic explanation.

 

In fact, the hairy growths probably developed because of unusual grooming habits, a genetic defect or a hereditary skin condition.

 

cat-wings-460_796559c.jpg

 

www.telegraph.co.uk

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HISTORICAL REPORTS OF WINGED CATS

There are around 138 reported sightings of winged cats. There are 28 documented cases i.e. with physical evidence and at least 20 photographs and, in recent times, one video. Several bodies and living winged cats have been examined. There is at least one stuffed specimen, but this may be a nineteenth century fake.

 

Possibly the earliest report of a winged cat is that by Henry David Thoreau: "A few years before I lived in the woods there was what was called a 'winged cat' in one of the farm-houses in Lincoln nearest the pond, Mr. Gillian Baker's. When I called to see her in June, 1842, she was gone a-hunting in the woods, as was her wont ... but her mistress told me that she came into the neighbourhood a little more than a year before, in April, and was finally taken into their house; that she was of a dark brownish-grey colour, with a white spot on her throat, and white feet, and had a large bushy tail like a fox; that in the winter the fur grew thick and flattened out along her sides, forming strips ten or twelve inches long by two and a half wide, and under her chin like a muff, the upper side loose, the under matted like felt, and in the spring these appendages dropped off. They gave me a pair of her 'wings,' which I keep still. There is no appearance of a membrane about them. Some thought it was part flying squirrel or some other wild animal, which is not impossible, for, according to naturalists, prolific hybrids have been produced by the union of the marten and the domestic cat. This would have been the right kind of cat for me to keep, if I had kept any; for why should not a poet's cat be winged as well as his horse? "

 

An undated case from Leeds in the 1800s involved a winged cat at the centre of a custody dispute with one party claiming him to be their cat, Thomas, and the other claiming it to be their feline, Bessy.

 

An undated, but old, winged cat taxidermy specimen can be found in the Niagara Valley. It has bony structures near its shoulder blades covered with flaps of skin. The specimen appears genuine, but the nature of the bony structures is unknown (possibly extra limbs). In "Animal Fakes and Frauds" (1976), Peter Dance wrote of a 19th century winged cat that was preserved and offered for sale in the early 1960s (this may be Thomas/Bessy). According to information about the creature, distributed from an address on London's Bond Street, the wings had grown when the cat was very young. It had been exhibited during the 19th century by a circus owner until its original owner demanded its return. A lawsuit ensued and the cat was ordered to be shipped back to its original owner. It died in transit and it was alleged that it had been deliberately poisoned. Its body was taxidermised and placed in a glass case displayed in a pub, ultimately ending up in an attic until being rediscovered and offered for sale. Dance had offered, apparently unsuccessfully, to buy it in order to discover whether or not it was genuine.

 

Another early report comes from India in 1868, but it is not possible to make a positive identification. The report described a nondescript animal, said to be a flying cat. The Bhells called it pauca billee, from the Hindi "pankha billi" (winged cat). It had been shot by Mr Alexander Gibson, in the Punch Mehali and the dried skin exhibited at a meeting of the Bombay Asiatic Society. The skin measured 18 inches (44 cm) in length, and was quite as broad when extended in the air. Mr Gibson, who was well known as a member of the Asiatic Society and a contributor to its journal, believed it to be a cat, and not a bat or a flying-fox as other people contended.

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