The Manx cat, a breed native to the Isle of Man, is instantly recognisable for one reason: it has no tail, or only a very short one. For centuries nobody knew why, and islanders came up with several colourful explanations of their own.
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The most famous story involves Noah’s Ark. According to legend, the cat was the last animal to board, and Noah shut the door in such a hurry that it cut off the cat’s tail.
Some old postcards from the island joke that a passing motorbike did the damage instead, a nod to the island’s TT races.
Other stories blame war. Viking raiders were said to decorate their helmets with cats’ tails, so mother cats supposedly bit off their kittens’ tails to protect them.
A fourth legend points to 1588, when ships from the Spanish Armada were wrecked around the British coast. One is said to have gone down near the island, and its tailless cats swam ashore and bred with the local population. A headland called Spanish Head still bears the name, though there is no real evidence a wreck ever happened there.
The strangest theory claims the Manx cat is a cross between a cat and a rabbit, an idea inspired by its long back legs and hopping gait. This is biologically impossible, since cats and rabbits cannot interbreed.
Scientists eventually found the real answer in the cat’s DNA. A mutation in a gene called T, or Brachyury, which controls how the tail and spine develop, is responsible for the missing tail. A single copy of the mutation is enough to produce a tailless cat, but two copies are fatal before birth, so breeders pair Manx cats carefully. The same gene can also affect the spine and pelvis, and some tailless cats suffer from related health problems as a result.
Despite the science, the old stories have never quite disappeared. Tourist shops and local guides on the Isle of Man still happily repeat the tales of Noah, the Vikings, the Armada and the rabbit.