Africa’s smallest cat, the most efficient hunting “killing machine”
The black-footed cat, the smallest cat in Africa, has the cutest appearance, but it is actually a "killing machine"! The hunting success rate is 60%, which is three times that of a lion, but its weight is only one percent of that of a lion. It is even so dangerous that it is banned from breeding all over the world!
1. The origin of the name of the black-footed cat
The black-footed cat is one of the smallest cats in Africa. The average weight of male cats is 1.9 kilograms, and the average weight of female cats is only 1.3 kilograms. The body length is 36 to 52 centimeters. The tail is half the body, 13 to 20 centimeters long, and the shoulder height is only 25 centimeters. With such small bodies, they are a little uncoordinated. Compared to their bodies, their heads are a bit big. Not only does this not reduce their charm, they also look even more adorable.
The fur color of black-footed cats is mostly white or brown, mixed with black or brown spots, and the coat is soft and dense. The most distinctive thing is their feet - not only are the hairs on their feet black, but the pads on their feet are also black!
This is why they are called "black-footed cats". Black feet are a good protection against being "burned" by the "hot" earth.
2. Living habits
Lonely night walkers
Among cats, except for lions, which live in groups, others basically live alone, ranging from tigers to rusty-spotted leopard cats (distributed in countries such as India and Sri Lanka, feeding on birds and small mammals, and are called "the smallest cats in the world" together with black-footed cats), and black-footed cats are not included.
Black-footed cats are accustomed to living alone, and they are also shy "night walkers". During the day, they mostly hide in jumping rabbits' nests, rocks or under jungles, and only come out to look for food at night. So they have excellent vision and keen hearing, as evidenced by their erect ears and big eyes. Some scientists say that the eyesight of black-footed cats is about six times that of humans.
Although black-footed cats are one of the smallest cats in the world, this does not mean that their combat effectiveness is weak. Even in terms of prey success rate alone, it is as high as 60%, which is three times that of lions and tigers.
For this reason, black-footed cats are called "merciless killing machines"
Because of their small size, black-footed cats generally do not rely on "brute force" to win, but outwitness. After all, they are not big, so the black-footed cat's food only consists of small rodent mammals and smaller birds. When it is extremely hungry and has nothing to eat, it will occasionally prey on insects and spiders, but insects account for less than one percent of its food.
Their hunting skills are somewhat similar to those of lynxes, which are of the "wait and wait" type.
Black-footed cats will silently guard the entrance of their prey's cave. They are extremely patient and can even wait for two hours at a time, waiting for the prey to come out and then take it by surprise. In addition, when they encounter "emotional" prey, they will approach it cautiously, and then attack to capture it when they are sure of victory. Extreme speed is the key to the success of all this. The black-footed cats are so fast that cameras cannot capture their movements. All we can see is the domineering and domineering look of them feasting after success.
There are even rumors that "black-footed cats can knock down giraffes." However, there is no evidence to prove this assertion. Now more people agree that this is an exaggerated statement by the Bushmen primitive people in order to motivate themselves. However, it can also be seen from this aspect how famous the black-footed cat is as a "killing machine".
In the BBC documentary "Bigcats", black-footed cats are also called "Africa's deadliest" cats. However, apart from the success rate of preying, the combat effectiveness of black-footed cats is actually not that amazing. After all, their size is too small, and they have no resistance at all when encountering lions and tigers.
However, black-footed cats require very high energy to maintain life. In order to find food, they can walk eight thousand meters in one night, and the food they eat in one night reaches one-sixth of their own body weight.
A black-footed cat can eat more than 3,000 mice in a year, an average of nearly ten mice a day. So don’t underestimate the mini body of black-footed cats, they are really big eaters.
In the previous article, we introduced that lynxes are a single-parent family, and now cats have another single-parent family - black-footed cats. Black-footed cats that live alone will only live with the opposite sex during the breeding season.
Black-footed cats usually give birth to two kittens in one litter. In most cases, the female cat raises the kittens alone. The kittens can become independent in about five months, but they will still live in their mother's territory.
Different genders require different territories for black-footed cats. Generally speaking, a female cat about one year old needs a territory of ten square kilometers, but a male cat of the same age needs about 22 square kilometers.
In 2014, a black-footed cat mother in a zoo in the United States gave birth to three cubs. The keepers named them Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion, which are the names of the three dragon mothers in "Game of Thrones".
3. Current status of black-footed cats
Black-footed cats are mainly distributed in African countries such as South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. They inhabit arid semi-deserts and savannahs, such as the arid tablelands and some high grasslands of South Africa, and some are also scattered in the Kalahari Desert. We mentioned earlier that black-footed cats have black feet and are used to moving at night, which is closely related to their hot living environment.
According to monitoring data, from 1998 to 1999, the density of black-footed cats in the Benfontein area was still 0.17 cats per square kilometer; fifteen years later, this value had dropped sharply to 0.08 cats per square kilometer. There are currently only about 10,000 black-footed cats in the wild.
There are three main reasons for such a sharp decline. One is that many people use black-footed cats as bait for hunting caracals, and the other is that even though the hunting success rate of black-footed cats is much higher than that of lions, their size limitations make them unable to fight back when facing animals that are several times their size, and they have to become "fish meat" for others.. The last reason is that in some areas of Saudi Arabia, some rich people spend a lot of money to buy black-footed cats and want to keep them as pets. This has resulted in some black-footed cats interbreeding with domestic cats, reducing the number of purebred black-footed cats.
Currently, black-footed cats have been listed as "vulnerable" by the World Conservation Union, and South Africa and Botswana have also formulated measures and taken actions to protect black-footed cats.
However, protecting black-footed cats or any species is a long and arduous process.
Countless netizens exclaimed "awsl" after seeing the cute appearance of black-footed cats, and even said they "want to get one." Most of them just expressed their love for black-footed cats and would not actually get one. But we still have to say,
The best love for black-footed cats and animals is to respect them, respect their living territories and living habits, and not keep them in captivity "in the name of love."
