Ussuri (cat)

Ussuri (cat)

The Ussuri is a rare domestic cat breed. It is a natural breed that originated in Russia's Amur River region. It is reputed to be derived from natural hybrids with small wild cats known as "Amur forest cats or Amur leopard cats (subspecies of the leopard cat, the same species used in the Bengal cat and related hybrid breeds). Semi-wild Ussuris are said to have then hybridised naturally with Siberians and European/Domestic Shorthairs. This hybrid-origin theory seems to be based on conjecture and the cat's appearance.

The breed is rare even in Russia. A translated breed standard for this and other native breeds was published in the mid-1990s, but nothing has been heard since that time and its breed status is unclear. The Ussuri's numbers are dwindling due to interbreeding with local domestic cats and, without a breeding programme to preserve the strain, it will disappear. But some other Russian minority cat breeds such as the Donskoy and Peterbald, whose standards were published in English at the same time, are now actively bred outside Russia.