Explaining Orange Cats

Orange cats (also called red cats or ginger cats) have a reputation of sharing one orange brain cell between them, but we love them for it. But how does a cat end up with orange fur, and why do so many of them have behavioral traits in common? It comes down to the genes.

Cats come in just a few colors: Black, gray, white, and orange. Since gray and white are variants on the amount of black, they often aren't considered colors, so you can say cats come in two colors: black and orange. All cat colors are a combination of those plus a lack of those colors, and they express those combinations in myriad ways. There are some brown cats, but they are rare, and like gray cats, it is caused by a genetic limitation on the expression of black. That leaves orange, which is both common and interesting.

Most of this video addresses the science of why cats are orange, but also gets into the stereotypes, like their enormous size (among males) and their personality traits like friendliness and lack of intelligence. The stereotype of orange cats being extremely food-oriented is not addressed, but that may be related to the fact that they are often large males. Note: when the narrator in this video uses the term tortoiseshell, she is including calico cats.