Meet the death stalking on black paws: this kitty is one of the deadliest killers in the world

We've mentioned several times before how much we adore everything cat-related. Of course, there's nothing surprising about that, but we mean it not only in terms of the whiskered ones that appear in history, science, and pop culture but also the ones living in the wild! Today, we bring you a brief but substantial summary of the black-footed cat, the wolf in sheep's clothing.

This kitty is so adorable that by looking at its photos, we feel our brains flooded with cuteness aggression, and we’d most likely hug it until we squeeze out all its breath. Naturally, solely driven by love and adoration. But don’t let the exterior fool you; in the case of the black-footed cat we are irresistibly drawn to one of the planet’s most ruthless predators. Interesting; perhaps it’s similar to being attracted to the bad boys…

Working with a 60% hunting success rate

Its weight is roughly 200 times less than that of an average male lion, with a shocking hunting success rate of 60%. Just to give you some context, a lion hunting alone operates at around a 17% success rate, which can jump up to 30% when in a group. Domestic cats achieve 32%, and even these numbers are considered very good.

Standing at just 20-25 cm tall and weighing 1.5-2 kg, the black-footed cat resembles a miniature version of the average neighborhood tabby. In fact, if it’s not blasphemous to say so, it even seems a tad sweeter. But perhaps that’s just fear speaking to us… Because the Felis nigripes catches more prey in a single night than a leopard does in six months. This means it snatches an average of 10-14 victims per night. These include a variety of smaller birds, rodents, insects, and bugs.

Anything that moves is food

In 2018, PBS Nature dedicated a miniseries to this cat, titled Super Cats, where this charming little killer rightfully took the spotlight. It’s incredibly difficult to obtain information about this special little cat because, thanks to its small size, it can vanish into the savannah grass in moments, much like a ninja. The filmmakers and the curator of the Cologne Zoo worked tirelessly to showcase the life of the black-footed cat. They managed to capture footage by equipping several South African-based cats with radio collars, then tracking them using highly advanced, light-sensitive cameras to record their nocturnal rampages.

Thanks to their extremely refined hearing and night vision, they sense almost everything that moves, and the bad news is, they consider anything that moves as potential food. With a fixed stare and slightly arched back, they stealthily advance and ruthlessly strike. Whether it’s a locust or a running mouse, they happily see everything as food.

They employ precisely three different techniques to catch their prey. Fast hunting allows them to swiftly penetrate the tall grass, enabling them to quickly and easily flush out smaller rodents and birds. During slow hunting, they attack the prey in its burrow, capturing it when it flees. In the third technique, they observe the victim and slowly sneak up on it until they reach a sufficient distance for attack.

Despite this, they are extremely vulnerable

According to the IUCN’s 2022 Red List of Endangered Species, the black-footed cat is categorized as “vulnerable,” meaning it faces a high risk of endangerment in the wild. Currently, the species is only found in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.