Posts tagged "BaiLing"

We recently told you about actress Bai Ling's pet cat Quiji, which she claims is half cheetah and half domestic cat. While the speckled cat certainly looks exotic, we were skeptical. Could Quiji really be half cheetah?

To find out more, we contacted Carlos Driscoll, a scientist who researches cat genetics at the National Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Genomic Diversity. It turns out we had good reason to be suspicious. "Her cat is most assuredly not hybridized with a cheetah," Driscoll told Paw Nation.

For one thing, the huge size difference between the house cat and the cheetah would make it impossible for them to mate, he says. Beyond that, "A cheetah is too far, genetically, from a domestic cat to produce viable offspring," Driscoll said.

"House cats and exotic cats can, on some occasions, breed, but not any [exotic cat] species, and certainly not a cheetah," Driscoll told us. Based on Quiji's appearance, he guesses that she might be a Savannah cat, a mix between the domestic cat and a wild feline called a serval.

But even Savannahs aren't as exotic as they sound, Driscoll adds. "Such cats sold to the public are, by law, at least five generations away from the serval. As a result, there is an almost undetectable serval genetic component to them," he told Paw Nation.

Bai Ling claims her ex-boyfriend paid $30,000 for the exotic cat. If so, we hope he's not reading this. That's a lot of dough to drop on a fake cheetah -- especially for an ex-girlfriend.

Rounding up our favorite animal stories, photos, and videos on the web each week!

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  Dogs like to mouth things, especially other animals' faces. Nobody gets hurt -- just a little slobbery. [via Urlesque]

Nobody's going to argue that Bai Ling is a little... eccentric. From the clothes she wears to the interviews she gives, she's a truly unique individual, so it's not all that surprising that she has a very unique cat.

Her cat, Quiji (the Chinese word for magic) is half domestic cat, half cheetah, according to PeoplePets.com, who spoke to Ling about her fancy feline. The cat, which was a gift from an ex-boyfriend, cost around $30,000.

Ling has always been an animal lover, and tells PeoplePets.com, "In my previous life, I was a cheetah or leopard or some sort of really wild and dangerous animal in nature." She's quick to point out that Quiji isn't dangerous, though: "The thing is, Quiji is really the most affectionate, even compared to human beings."