Largest wingspan for a winged cat

So-called ‘winged cats’ – until recently a major source of mystery and controversy - are domestic cats now known to be suffering from a very rare genetic skin disorder called feline cutaneous asthenia (FCA), in which the skin is exceptionally extensible, so that when such a cat grooms itself or even if it rubs its shoulders or back against some object, the skin readily stretches into long furry wing-like extensions. Sometimes, due to these ‘wings’ containing musculature, they can even be actively raised up and down by the cat. Several winged cats have been documented from around the world, but the specimen with the biggest confirmed wingspan was a winged cat recorded in northern Sweden in June 1949 when it was shot after allegedly leaping at a small child. Examined by Swedish scientist Prof. Rendahl of Sweden’s State Museum of Natural History, where its corpse was donated, its wings were found to measure 23 inches across.