The tabby pattern is so popular that it can be found in many pedigreed cats today, and is accepted in a number of breeds by the most popular registries.

And have you ever seen a solid red or orange or cream cat without the familiar tabby markings? You won’t, because the gene that makes a cat red or cream also makes the tabby markings visible. Look at a “solid” black cat in the sun some day and see if you can find the hidden tabby markings. The gene for the tabby pattern can be found in all domestic cats.

Natural selection made the tabby gene more dominant because the tabby coat is better camouflage than solid or bicolor coats, and thus an individual with a tabby coat would have better chances of survival because it could hunt and avoid predators more easily. This is one of the reasons most second or third generation feral cats are tabbies. The tabby gene is more dominate than any other coat color gene. Tabby cats are often mistakenly thought of as being a particular breed of cat, but it is the coat pattern that is known as “tabby.” Today’s house cats originated from the African wildcat which has similar markings to those we see on tabby cats, an effective form of camouflage. Southern African wildcat, Leonemanuel, CC BY-SA 4.0

Mackerel tabby