“Tiny But Mighty” Reaches New Heights With World’s Deadliest Cat

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People often use the phrase “small but mighty,” but there’s one species of cat that lives up to it beyond compare. Not long ago, millions of people had a rare glimpse of an almost cartoonish creature that is the deadliest of all cats. And what made it even more amazing was that it was a tiny black-footed cat, so absurdly cute and yet savagely deadly.

These small wild cats have incredible hunting skills and agility, defying belief. That’s why the Afrikaans language calls them “anthill tigers”, but they exceed the hunting success rate of a tiger of twelve times! A local legend says that a black-footed cat killed a giraffe by cutting its jugular vein. And researchers have seen them repel adult jackasLS eight times bigger than them.

While many big cats generally have a 20 percent hunting success rate, these Yodas of the cat world have a 60 percent success rate. By comparison, that’s six times the success rate of a polar bear and three times that of a wolf, according to Panther.

Small but mighty black-footed cat

The BBC series Big Cat later appeared on PBS, featuring Gyra, a black-footed cat (Felis negripe), hunting prey in the wild in southern Africa. Researchers named it, and when people saw it, it suddenly became famous all over the world. So much so that years later, some still confuse its name “Gyra” with that of its species.

And there is also a famous black-footed fish cat named Gaia at the Hogle Zoo in Utah. Gaia is one of the under 40 black-footed cats in captivity in the United States.

Looking at Gyra, below, you can see the intense feline attitude staring back at you.

What amazed the world about Gyra, however, was seeing its incredible hunting in action. With its small size, it demonstrated how high it could jump after a bird. Although these felines are nothing more than 14-17 inches long (without the tail), they jump like real-life superheroes. According to the Hogle Zoological Garden, Cats like Gyra can jump up to 1.5 meters in the air and 2.5 meters in distance!

After a successful hunt, he glared at the camera, as if to say, “Don’t even think about taking my prize, you idiot!”

Video about Gyra, the Black-Footed Cat from Nature on PBS:

Gyra, the black-footed cat, has a weakness

Although not seen in the YouTube video above, Gyra walked 20 miles every night in search of food for her kitten (see video below).

Litters of these cats tend to be small. After birth, the kittens grow rapidly and take care of themselves by about four months of age. But it is safe to say that this kitten is as playful and restless as any other kitten we have seen.

Note: Don’t be fooled, these cats have nothing to do with domestic nature.

Black-footed cats can kill 14 small animals each night, which provides them with most of the water they need in their arid environment. Having adapted so well to aridity prairie habitatyes, they do not like to climb. If they did try to climb, they would be disadvantaged by their stubby legs and short tail. However, they are skilled in digging and stay cool in other animals’ burrows.

“And the reason for Gyra’s enormous appetite is that she is raising her little hunter,” says the narrator. “Even the deadliest cat in Africa can have a softer side.”

These cats belong to the wild nature

Although the Gyra kitten is incredibly cute (video below), these cats are known for their aggressive and deadly nature. As such, they should never be considered pets and remain vulnerable in the wild, where they are mostly solitary. Like most wild cats in the world these days, they are declining due to threats such as poaching, poisoning, and habitat loss. According to an estimate by the IUCN Red List, there are fewer than 10,000 individuals left in the wild, but black-footed cats are extremely difficult to track.

Watch Gyra’s kittens in the video shared by Wonders of the Wild Safari under:

As you might expect, black-footed cats also look adorable, as you can see below. Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas. One person compared it to “meowing with an accent.”

The cats residing at the center have had kittens since 2019, including Gaia.

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center Video:

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