The charcoal coat pattern, unique to Bengal cats, features a dark facial mask and a distinctive dorsal stripe, often called a "cape." Unlike fully melanistic cats, the charcoal pattern results from a complex interaction between genes influencing melanism and coat patterning.
This pattern is strongly associated with compound heterozygosity in the ASIP gene. Specifically, it arises when a Bengal inherits one copy of the A^Pbe and one copy of thenon-agouti allele (a) which in combination creates the striking charcoal phenotype.
