Big oranges are the most important, and nine out of ten oranges are big... There is a scientific basis behind this

In 1948, the first cartoon orange cat was born on the screen. Its name was "Lightning".

It is called this name because it runs fast, as fast as lightning.

Maybe you haven't heard of it, it doesn't matter, you must have seen "Tom and Jerry", there is an episode called Old Rockin' Chair Tom, the orange cat in it is "Lightning".

Lightning, the orange cat in Tom and Jerry (Photo credit: CuldeSac12)

Funny and cute orange cats on the screen

"Lightning" is just a supporting role in "Tom and Jerry". This is not the role that makes the orange cat shine on the screen. What really makes the orange cat the protagonist on the screen is a cat named "Garfield".

Garfield was born on June 19, 1978, and is a genuine orange cat. Not only is his fur color genuine, but his personality is also genuine.

As long as you put pasta and lasagna in front of Garfield, it won't last more than 10 seconds before it eats everything. He is a real foodie.

Garfield (Photo credit: tenor)

At the same time, it doesn't exercise. Garfield always says: "Breathing is exercise!" He can eat a lot, but he doesn't exercise. It's strange that Garfield is not fat. The first "big orange" on the screen is this one.

Image credit: Ddimamohov

Since then, there have been many cartoon orange cat images such as Puss in Boots and Heathcliff. There are many more in the movie, which are not listed here one by one.

Stray cat Bob (Photo source: USAtoday)

Metazoa (Photo credit: Nerdist)

Keanu the Cat (Photo source: Entertainment weekly)

It has to be said that the ubiquitous image of orange cats can only prove that big orange cats have always been the favorite of filmmakers.

The reason they are loved is simple: orange cats are the friendliest of all cats!

Genes determine color, and color changes personality?

Previously, National Geographic wrote an article about cats and interviewed a veterinarian from the San Diego Humane Society. One of the questions was: What does a cat's personality have to do with? The veterinarian directly answered: It has to do with color, and orange cats have the best personality.

Does this make sense? Is it a personality metaphysics? It all starts with its orange hair.

The reason why orange cats are orange is, of course, because of genes.

Although cats come in many colors, there are actually only two kinds of pigments in their hair under normal circumstances. One is eumelanin, which produces black, and the other is pheomelanin, which produces red.

Different mixing and matching of the two pigments creates cats of different colors.

The little orange tree in the author's home (Photo credit: Su Chengyu)

If a cat only deposits red chromomelanin, it becomes an orange cat.

The orange gene that can express this pigment is on the sex chromosome X. We all know that the sex chromosomes of female cats are XX and those of male cats are XY.

If a female cat is orange, both of her XX chromosomes must carry the orange gene. A male cat only needs one X chromosome to carry the orange gene, and a male orange cat is born! Therefore, the probability of a male orange cat being born is three times that of a female orange cat.

This is why nine out of ten orange cats are male. In other words, most of the orange cats you see are male.

So?

In 2015, Elizabeth A. Stelow conducted a study that collected 1,432 surveys from cat owners and found that male cats are friendlier, clingier, and more lively than female cats!

In addition to the good temperament of orange cats, scientists have also discovered some interesting characteristics of orange cats.

If you want to encounter a big orange, you have to go to these places...

Dominique Pontier is a French scientist who studied cats of various colors in urban and rural France from 1982 to 1992, examining the frequency of the orange gene in the cat population.

The results showed that orange cats are more likely to appear in rural areas. This shows that in rural environments, orange cats have a higher success rate in breeding. Why is this?

Cats in rural environments are more likely to be polygamous, meaning that male cats will mate with many female cats, while female cats will only mate with one male cat.

As mentioned earlier, orange cats are generally male, so the probability of orange cats spreading their "ancestral chromosomes" is higher.

In cities, female and male cats generally have multiple mates, so the frequency of the orange gene in male cats is diluted.

At the same time, Pontier also found that orange cats are less common in some dangerous areas. According to survivor bias (which means that the survivors are unable to make sounds), orange cats are more likely to "seek death" because they are active, so they are naturally less common after they die...

Of course, scientists have also studied the characteristic of "big orange means heavy". The survey found that orange male cats are much heavier than male cats of other colors, but orange female cats are lighter than female cats of other colors. A 1984 survey of wild cats in Australia also confirmed this view.

Due to the characteristic that nine out of ten oranges are male, it is right to give priority to the larger oranges in most cases.

How about it? After reading this, do you want to hug the big orange next to you and give it a good rub?

Oh, first of all, you need a big orange...

References :

[1] Mort, RL, Ross, RJH, Hainey, KJ, Harrison, OJ, Keighren, MA, Landini, G., … Yates, CA (2016). Reconciling diverse mammalian pigmentation patterns with a fundamental mathematical model. Nature Communications, 7(1). doi:10.1038/ncomms10288

[2] Pontier D, Rioux N, Heizmann A. Evidence of selection on the orange allele in the domestic cat Felis catus: the role of social structure[J]. Oikos, 1995: 299-308.

[3] Jones E, Horton B J. Gene frequencies and body weights of feral cats, Felis catus (L.), from five Australian localities and from Macquarie Island[J]. Australian journal of zoology, 1984, 32(2): 231-237.

[4] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/151203-cats-animals-science-communication-pets.