Template:Did you know nominations/Mekong Bobtail

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 21:08, 25 December 2019 (UTC)

DYK toolbox

Mekong Bobtail

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Mekong Bobtail
Mekong Bobtail
  • ... that according to legend, the ancestors of the Mekong Bobtail (pictured) guarded princesses' jewelry while they bathed? Source: "Princesses also entrusted these animals guarding duties. When they bathed they left their jewelry ashore, and the animal guarded them." ([1])
    • ALT1:... that the Mekong Bobtail (pictured) is believed to have descended from cats given to Nicholas II by Chulalongkorn? Source: "According to history, the Mekong Bobtail was among the 200 royal cats that were gifted by the King of Thailand to Nicholas II." ([2])
  • Comment: I created this article in userspace initially, but moved it to mainspace on October 31.

Created by Aboideau (talk). Self-nominated at 20:28, 31 October 2019 (UTC).

  • Starting review --valereee (talk) 14:28, 1 November 2019 (UTC)


General: Article is new enough and long enough
Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
QPQ: None required.

Overall: valereee (talk) 14:28, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

  • Source/assertion query: I'm not finding anything about snakes or loose skin in the source for being well suited to this task by the looseness of their skin, which made them less susceptible to snakebite, I think the source may have been for the first half of the sentence? As an aside, what does being less susceptible to snakebite have to do with guarding treasure? We're probably guarding something else from snakes, maybe family members or children? I'm wondering if this was supposed to be two sentences and you got distracted halfway through or something. :D --valereee (talk) 15:46, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    You're right! I've changed that -- I don't know where I got "treasure." Apparently they guarded palaces (probably the people in the palaces, but it doesn't say that). aboideautalk 16:07, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
  • Pic is lovely, but I'm wondering if one of the others at Commons Category:Mekong_Bobtail that shows the bobbed tail might be more interesting to a general audience? --valereee (talk) 15:50, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    That's true. Do you think this one would show up well enough? aboideautalk 16:07, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    Yes, I think that one is better! It'll need to be added to the article to make it eligible for inclusion at DYK, but it doesn't have to be the primary image on the article, and you can swap it in for the one above. --valereee (talk) 16:58, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
  • No qpq needed, this is editor's first DYK --valereee (talk) 15:52, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
  • Redirects aren't allowed in DYK hooks; Nicholas II needs to be changed to either Nicholas II of Russia or Nicholas II (piped). I'm also wondering if 'by Chulalongkorn' or similar into the hook might be good? --valereee (talk) 16:10, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    That would definitely be more explanatory -- is it OK for me to directly edit ALT1? aboideautalk 16:52, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    Yes, you can edit freely -- I'm the only one who can't edit a hook, as if I do more than a small tweak, someone else has to re-check. --valereee (talk) 16:58, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
  • Not sure about the sourcing for either alt. ALT0 is sourced to an interview with an owner, and ALT1 is sourced to catspro.com, which appears to be an aggregator of online items about cats. The article itself is professionally written and doesn't contain anything that seems questionable -- as a lifelong Siamese person, I am not surprised by any of the descriptions of this cats, which is likely closely related and interbred with Siamese -- and it's probably fine for the article, but without a more reliable source, I'm not sure we can make the ALT1 assertion in a DYK hook. I think we need to try to find backing for that assertion in another place. Alternatively we could come up with another hook -- maybe something about a cat considered native to Russia being named after a river that doesn't flow through that country? --valereee (talk) 16:58, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    Would this PetGuide page work as a source for ALT1? If not, the Mekong river hook would also be good, but I don't know if there are any really good sources for it either. aboideautalk 17:12, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    I'll take a look at it, and if not maybe we can do some research. There's no deadline here, we can take our time. The problem is probably that it's a breed recognized only recently, so not a lot has been written about it, but I suspect there's something out there somewhere. --valereee (talk) 17:26, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
    Hm, Petguide.com might work -- it seems to have an editorial board. --valereee (talk) 17:29, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
  • Approving with ALT1 --valereee (talk) 17:55, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
  • I have pulled this from prep as neither of the supplied sources support the hook - indeed the first one directly contradicts it as it says the breed was developed from "other bobtail kitties" imported into Russia. Gatoclass (talk) 07:52, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
Gatoclass, hm, I think you're right. Pinging aboideau, and I'll suggest an alt:
  • ALT2: ... that in the 19th century, cats resembling the Mekong Bobtail (pictured) were among 200 cats given to Nicholas II by Chulalongkorn? Corelli, Steve (2018-01-10). "Mekong Bobtail: Royal Cats with a Noble Heart". CatsPro. Retrieved 2019-10-23.--valereee (talk) 13:46, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

How about:

Gatoclass, I don't think the sources say all 200 were bobtails? --valereee (talk) 22:10, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
Hi Valereee and Gatoclass, yes, the source only says "many." Thank you both -- I think that ALT2 looks good, if we can use that one. I'm sorry about this, somehow I originally interpreted the source to support ALT1. aboideautalk 23:02, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
Aboideau, no worries, I interpreted them that way, too. That's why we have multiple people checking these! --valereee (talk) 23:07, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
  • Approving Alt2. --evrik (talk) 16:29, 11 December 2019 (UTC)
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