Sokoke - a rare African Beauty

Text and Photos: Anita H. Engebakken, Kimburu – Bengal & Sokoke

Arabuko Sokoke is a forest at the coast of Kenya, East Africa. From this very special natural habitat comes a pedigree cat – the Sokoke cat. This cat is as special as the area it comes from. Most people who have experienced a sokoke will soon find out that there is something unique about this African beauty.

The Origin

Arabuko Sokoke forest is the last larger area of the original coastal forest in Kenya. It covers an area of 140 square kilometers, where 6 square kilometers are a nature reserve. There exists 6 species of birds and 3 species of mammals in this forest that barely exist other places, they are (almost) endemic.

The path form beeping a half wild cat in Kenya to a recognized pedigree cat in FIFe went pretty fast on the Sokokes behalf, but there was a lot of work behind their recognition. It was Jeni Slater who took care of the first sokokes in 1978 when she first found two kittens on her coconut plantation in Kenya. She had never seen a cat like this before and thought they looked very special. In 1984 Gloria Møldrup, a good friend of Jeni’s, brought two cats, Jeni and Mzuri, to Denmark. These two cats had their first litter in 1985. More cats were imported from Kenya in 1991. One cat was imported to Italy in 1992. This was the early beginning of the sokoke breed. The Sokoke got recognized on a ”recognition” show in Vissenbjerg, Denmark the 6th of September 1992, and as a result was a recognized pedigree cat within FIFe from 1993.

The true origin of the Sokoke cat is still a mystery. The breed is without doubt a domestic cat from Kenya that lived without human interference for a long time. How long is not known. The mystery lays in the pattern, the classic tabby – called African tabby among Sokoke breeders and owners. This pattern is one thought to have originated in Europe, so how did it get to Africa on the Sokoke cat? The classic tabby is not a pattern to be found on the typical domestic cat in Eastern Africa. At one point this breed probably got in contact with a Siamese pointed cat, or a carrier for this gene. This is the only likely explanation on the appearance of snow Sokokes, which are Siamese pointed. For this gene to evolve twice in domestic cats history is so to speak impossible. Except for the pattern and the Siamese gene the sokoke has little in common with other breeds of pedigree cats.

Breeders of Sokokes have thought for a long while that it wasn’t possible to get more cats from Kenya. We have tried to locate some for years without succeeding. Today the situation has turned around. For the first time we have been able to locate more Sokokes in Kenya, this time through a woman named Jeannie Knocker and her son Will. She has bred the cats and they produce kittens true in type, confirmation, pattern and colour, so there are no doubts these are true Sokokes. Two cats have are already been novice approved (the 25^th of January 2003) and have gotten their FIFe pedigrees. 3 more Sokokes are scheduled to arrive from Kenya in July 2003, probably to be novice approved in about a year from now. These cats will have a tremendous positive impact on this little breed when it comes to avoiding the high inbreeding.

Sokoke personality

The Sokoke is a very active cat. It has kept all its instincts from the nature and this makes the sokoke a very special cat too. If frightened it will “freeze”, tighten its muscles, jump right up and kick off with the hind feet when it lands. It will flee so fast you wouldn’t know where it went before it’s gone. To flee is this cats defense, and the sokoke is not an aggressive cat at all. It flees as long as there is a possibility to do so and will only use theeth or claws if very threatened and stuck in a corner.

This is an elegant cat with elegant movements. They are well-adapted sprinters with their long legs (longer hind legs than fore legs) and medium long slender body with lots of muscles. The head is small in comparison to the body, the eyes are huge and the ears are big. The sokoke still looks like a “cat of the Jungle”. But it has a domestic temperament. As a cat from a costal forest it accepts water as a part of the environment, but don’t like to get wet.

The Sokoke is highly intelligent cat with a high self-esteem. It’s a very social cat and enjoy company of other cats, especially other Sokokes. Sokokes are very bonded to it’s owners and may change a lot if it gets a new owner in adult life. These cats don’t require any special needs and aren’t picky. They really enjoy the warmth though and shouldn’t be kept in a temperature below 22 degrees Celsius for a longer period of time. Their fur is very sleek, close lying and thin with no undercoat, they don’t need that in Kenya.

This is a very independent cat and it loves attention from the owner(s). It will follow you around the house and always be ready for a loving stroke on head and back. Usually they don’t like to be held against their will and most don’t want to be lifted off the ground. They will gladly sleep in your lap if they decide to do so (more than one of the time is ideal), but you can’t lift it onto your lap and expect it to stay. Sleeping in the lap is especially priced when it’s a bit chilly as you make an excellent warming pad.

You could always train a sokoke to know that lifting doesn’t hurt them in anyway and make them accept this kind of handling, but it requires a bit of work form early kitten hood. You can’t train this cat to anything with yelling and screaming it will only upset the cats, as they are very sensitive to different moods and sounds. On the other had you could have a longer conversation with a sokoke as they answer you happily in their high but clear voices. Some say it has a voice the Siamese could envy.

Sokokes are good hunters. I’ve had the pleasure to see my Sokokes on insect hunts the entire summer. Rarely they miss a target and the whole thing is done like a strike of well-directed lightning. If the insect too far away they’ll wait until it approaches to make the attack. The whole hunting process is very different from other cats I’ve watched. There is no crouching down; no uncontrolled running around, and the success rate of catching the actual pray is much higher. Flying preys, like insects, are favorite snacks of many Sokokes. Birds and mice are rarely caught and eaten. Quite a few Sokokes will also eat fruits and vegetables like bananas, tomatoes and melons.

As previously mentioned Sokokes are very happy to have company from other Sokokes. If you have 3 or more Sokokes you will soon detect that they are a small pack of cats. All the cats has it’s own place in the pack. They work together e.g. to catch the biggest dragonfly or to tell the others that you carry a claw clipper and it’s time to scatter, run and hide from the human they own. Because of their high intelligence and highly sensitivity it’s almost impossible to get a hold of a sokoke if they don’t want you to. Even if you have the claw clipper, medicine or whatever hidden from them and try to act like nothing, they will know what is coming and make it difficult for you to do so. With stubbornness and enough time you will eventually get to do it.

Colour, pattern and coat
The sokoke cat is only recognized in one colour and pattern, African tabby. African tabby is nothing more mysterious than a brown classic tabby pattern with ticking in both the ground colour AND the pattern colour. The pattern is brown to black on a lighter brown to gray brown background. The ticking in the pattern colour is special an unique for this breed. Most patterned cats has some degree of ticking in the background colour, but not in the pattern colour. The eye colour varies fro yellow, to golden to green. All shades of brown classic tabby is allowed and so are all eye colours except blue.

The coat of a sokoke feels sleek and silky when you stroke it in the hairs direction. If you stroke it against the hairs direction you will feel a resistance in the heirs and discover that the coat is far from as soft as you first thought. The coat is close lying with no or very little undercoat. The sokoke also have very little body fat. This makes the cat feel a bit hard and you are able to feel al the muscles and bones very well. Because of this short, thin coat and small amounts of body fat a sokoke will easily chill in low temperature. This is no outdoors cat in our part of the world!

Even if the sokoke is very warmth loving they will be more than happy with a big outdoor run to get out when the weather is nice and warm. A place they really could run at top speed. Something to climb in is very much appreciated as well. But the most important is the possibility to get in when they feel it’s getting too cold outside.

Inbreeding

Since there are so few Sokokes in the world, they have a high inbreeding coefficient. This means the cats suffers from inbreeding depression at this point, and perhaps they don't? - but all evidence point in that direction. This inbreeding has been impossible to avoid, unfortunately. All healthy, fertile females and almost all males will be bred from in order to maximize the little genetic diversity there are. Since the breed is so inbreed we at least know almost for sure that this breed don't carry any fatal deceases and they don't have the white spotting gene in their gene pool.  

Help is on its way, finally. With two new, already approved to be Sokokes by FIFe judges, from Kenya, and 3 more coming the inbreeding depression will hopefully be lifted to never again return in the extent it has today. The 5 new Kenyan Sokokes are not at all related to each other or the current Sokokes, as a total they bring in more new blood than the cats that started this breed in the first place. And there is a chance to get even more Sokokes from Kenya as a women named Jeannie Knocker are gathering and breeding Sokokes in Kenya (without pedigrees).

Do you think the Sokoke sound like a cat for you?
Then you should know:

1) The Sokoke is a playful, active, proud and very intelligent cat.

2) Females in heat and fertile males could be very vocal and loud (easily giving the Siamese a run for it's money, but with a different, clearer voice)

3) This is not a cat that will sleep in your lap for hours a day, but it's still loving. It will come to you for a nap in your lap when it fits the Sokoke itself. They don't like cuddling, but will follow you around and always like to be petted.

4) If you want a Sokoke, it would be very good if you were willing to help saving this breed, which means you let your Sokoke have a couple of litters before it is spayed or neutered - at least as long as it is healthy and free of faults. If you want to breed Sokokes - GREAT! With this breeds comes a challenging hobby!

5) The Sokoke doesn't demand much grooming, and doesn't shed much either (but they do lose hairs). All they need to thrive is high quality food, clean water, a warm place to sleep and loving care from an interested owner who does everything to keep the cat healthy and happy.

If you would like a cat like this, the Sokoke could very well be the breed for you.

Do you want a sokoke?

Sokokes are wonderful, special cats to be around. Unfortunately they are not very many or very common. This means that everyone that want a sokoke will have to be patient for a litter to be born with available kittens.

If you want a female you most likely should be willing to have a litter or two in order to contribute your cat’s very valuable genes to the sokoke gene pool. It’s easier to get a boy “just for pet”.

With the new blood coming from Kenya and knowledge not to repeat some of the mistakes of the past future sokoke breeders will have an easier time getting kittens than what recently has been normal.