RID - 2440 ROTARACT CLUB OF BOSTANLI

Van Cat:

When we talk about cats in Turkey, firstly Van cats come to mind as one of the breeds. They have taken their name Van Cat from a city called “Van” in Turkey. The Van cat is considered a rare breed, one of the most beautiful and certainly the most unusual breeds of a cat ever known.

Distinguishing Characteristics: This breed of cats has lean and long-legged appearance. One of the characteristics of Van cats is the colour of their eyes. They are classified under three groups according to the colour of their eyes:

• Both eyes blue

• Both eyes amber colour

• One eye blue and the other amber

Largely, the new-borned Van cats have 10-12 cm body lenght and adults reach up to 30-40 cm. They all mention as sympathic, warm and friendly cats. The distinctive feature that separates it from other cats is swimming. They all love water and swimming. It is a great pleasure for them.

Conservation: Van cat is a natural breed of cats and can still be found in eastern Turkey, near Lake Van, although their numbers have decreased. Unfortunately, they are under threat of extinction for fifteen years. However, as required care has not been shown so far, they face loss of the species. The number of them has been decreasing day by day and the original breeds have been lost. There are many reasons for this.

How to help them / How to conserve?

Firstly, measures need to be taken to protect the natural habitat. The destruction of threatened animals’ habitats shoul be illegal. This would protect animals and the environments they live in. Another solution is to promote education about endangered species to be aware of the problem. We should create more national parks and alternative conservation areas. This would allow animals to live and breed safely in their natural habitats.

Mating with other species especially with stray cats creates a big problem by causing changes in this breed. At the same time, urbanization and economic problems of people affect negatively to the generations of Van cats. All these factors led to defect breed and genetic of these cats. The first step, to protect disappearing of these cats, came from a university in Van. They built “Research Center of Van Cats” in 1992 to find the solutions of health problems and make scientific researches. There are approximately 400 cats registered in this institute and it have been expected that 80 number of families feed Van cats outside the city.

For protecting them it is essential, to prevent hybridization and not to let them moving away from their natural habitat. As a result, their numbers would increase and species would not die out. It is necessary to continue with our efforts to save them from becoming extinct.

Rotaract Club of Bostanli – RID 2440, TURKEY