and some that are mostly black. The urban variety are very similar to an island population a few hundred kilometres north, the subject of a book called The Cats of Lamu (by Jack Couffer, 1998, Lyons Press). All of these populations are characterized by narrow faces compared to other African domestic cats, as well as long ears, long legs, and a lean, not cobby, body. Relation to other populations Couffer hypothesises that, due to their isolation and Lamu's ancient history as a trade centre between Africa and Asia, they may be more closely related than even the Egyptian Mau breed to the original cats domesticated in the Fertile Crescent over 4,000 years ago and holding special favour in Ancient Egypt While modern genetic work has yet to prove or disprove Couffer's idea, a DNA study by the Cat Genome Project (CGP) at the US National Cancer Institute has determined that the spotted khadzonzo street cats of eastern Kenya, the cats of the Lamu Archipelago off the Kenyan coast, and the standardized Sokoke are all closely related. CGP categorised them in its "Arabian Sea Racial Group" (among a total of 12 feline "race" groupings). The group's shared DNA is derived primarily from Asian domestic cats, with ancient Arabian wildcat progenitors. This dispels the suspicion of some breeders that the cats are at least part modern wildcat – they are no more wild than the rest of the domestic cats. Advances in DNA sequencing have now resulted in an ambitious whole-body sequencing effort, called the 99 Cat Genome Project, which may reveal much more about the origins of the khadzonzo and connections that it and the Sokoke has with other cat populations. Status The Lamu population are under pressure from a sterilisation campaign championed by recent immigrants, while the forest population have become rare for unclear reasons, and more secretive. Eight specimens (only two female) were captured for breeding from the forest in 2001; photographs show that several have very large dark blotches, somewhat reminiscent of the unrelated clouded leopard species (a trait now available in recent bloodlines of the pet breed), but share both tall ears and long body with the already-established formal breed. As with most native landrace populations of cats, these must be under threat of genetic erosion from modern cats introduced, and allowed to roam and interbreed, by foreign settlers to the area. For example, the Manx cat