(20 Sep 2015) LEAD IN:
Turkish scientists are trying to save indigenous albino cats - from Turkey's south-eastern province of Van - from extinction.
A special research centre has been set up and these unique animals with oddly coloured eyes have now become a big tourist attraction.
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These snow-white cats with odd coloured amber and blue eyes and pink ears are not your ordinary albino breed.
They are the indigenous Van cats who had been living with Van families for centuries. But at the end of the 20th Century they were nearly extinct.
When the Van Cats Research Centre opened its doors in 1992 with the goal of protecting this unique cat from dying out, they could only find 12 of them.
Today the centre accommodates nearly 210 Van cats, and according to their figures there are about 3,500 inside the region.
Dr Abdullah Kaya, Head of Van Cats Research Centre under Yuzuncu Yil University, explains their efforts to locate these animals back in 1992.
"When this centre was founded in 1992 they started with 12 cats. Then, the cats bred. Of course at that time they tried to find the most original cats that people had. Since then we have been breeding them. Right now there are nearly 210 cats in here," says Dr. Kaya.
The Van Cats Research Centre seems like a luxury cat hotel where the guests are fed and helped to breed, while classical and folk music plays in the background.
There are separated grounds and rooms for male and female cats, and also special rooms for birthing, and the development of new-born kittens.
The origin of these cats is uncertain, but according to researchers they may have originated from the Altai Mountains in Central Asia or from cold climate areas.
Researchers working in the centre say that Van cats are smart, clean, loving to humans and also love swimming in water.
Some locals still remember seeing Van cats having a bath in Van Lake in the old days.
The main problem that Dr. Kaya and his team is facing now is keeping the purity of Van cats. The pure genes that define this rare species are pure albino with odd coloured eyes.
After two decades of matching the cats they first collected, some of the kittens come up with coloured hair, same coloured eyes and other traits that are characteristic for common cats.
"We are trying to couple the female Van cat and male Van cat, which we suppose to be pure. When kittens of mixed genetics are born, we eliminate (separate from the pure group) these cats and we don't couple them again. Thus, we gradually protect a purer Van cat," says Dr. Kaya.
As the centre can only accommodate a maximum of 250 cats, the non-pure ones with coloured hair or same coloured eyes are sold to local families under the supervision and veterinary care of the centre.
Depending of their purity, the price for each cat goes from 375 Turkish Lira (130 US Dollars) to 900 Turkish Lira (315 US Dollars).
The genetic anomaly of oddly coloured eyes is found in humans and other animals in a ratio of one in every 10,000. But in Van Cats, the albino odd coloured eyes shows up in 16 among 100 Van cats, according to the centre figures.
The Natural and Applied Science Research Laboratories at Yuzuncu Yil University has been collecting blood samples from Van cats for the last three years in order to isolate their genetic codes.
Nahit Aktas, head of the laboratory, says these cats could unlock many discoveries.
The reason for the Van cat almost becoming extinct a few decades ago was a change in the local way of living.
When people moved from rural houses to apartments most of them decided not to keep cats.
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