Which island is famous for having cats with no tails?

The Manx cat is a breed of domestic cat originating on the Isle of Man (a self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland), with a naturally occurring mutation that shortens the tail. Manx cats are best known as being entirely tailless; this is the most distinguishing characteristic of the breed, along with elongated hind legs and a rounded head. Manx cats come in all coat colors and patterns, though all-white specimens are rare, and the coat range of the original stock was more limited.

Cats use their tails for balance when running and jumping, and to communicate body language, it seems odd that some should lack them. The gene likely has been passed on mainly through selective breeding by humans, a process called “novelty selection".

Although the gene that carries these mutations is dominant, making it easy enough to pass on, there is an interesting quirk: if an unborn cat inherits the gene from both parents rather than just one, it will likely die in the womb. That is why the gene that causes the cats to have no tail has been nicknamed, darkly, “the lethal gene”.