Mammals
Black-footed Cat
Felis nigripes · also called black-footed cat, small-spotted cat, anthill tiger
The black-footed cat is Africa’s smallest wild cat — a 1.5-kilogram animal that could curl up in your hands — and, measured by how often its hunts succeed, the deadliest cat on the planet. It hunts almost without pause from dusk to dawn.
Overview
Black-footed cats live in dry open grassland, scrub, and semi-desert of southern Africa — mostly South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia. They are strictly nocturnal and solitary, sheltering by day in hollow termite mounds and old springhare or aardvark burrows — hence the local name “anthill tiger.”
The deadliest cat
A black-footed cat succeeds in about 60% of its hunting attempts and makes 10–14 kills a night, trotting and quartering 8–16 km of open ground in the dark. That strike rate dwarfs a lion’s (~25%). It is driven by need: a tiny body, a high metabolism, and a nightly food requirement of a large fraction of its own weight in rodents, shrews, and small birds.
Small and fearless
Only the pads and lower feet are black; the coat is tawny-gold with dense spots. For its size the cat is famously unwilling to retreat, defending itself against far larger animals — the root of the San legend that it can pull down a giraffe.
Status
The black-footed cat is Vulnerable and declining, with fewer than 10,000 mature animals. It is hit by habitat loss, overgrazing, poisoning and predator control aimed at other species, and road deaths, and it breeds poorly in captivity due to a high rate of fatal kidney amyloidosis.
Black-footed Cat: common questions
Is the black-footed cat really the deadliest cat in the world?
By hunting success rate, yes. Long-term field studies in South Africa found that black-footed cats catch prey in about 60 percent of their attempts and make on the order of 10 to 14 kills in a single night. By comparison, lions succeed in roughly a quarter of hunts, leopards and tigers in a similar range, and a well-fed domestic cat far less often. So while a black-footed cat is no threat to anything larger than a hare, it is, proportionally and by strike rate, the most efficient feline killer known. This is driven by necessity — it is tiny, it lives in a harsh environment, it has a very high metabolism, and it must eat a large fraction of its own body weight in prey every night to survive.
How big is a black-footed cat?
It is the smallest cat in Africa and one of the smallest wild cats anywhere. Adult males weigh about 1.5 to 2.5 kilograms and females about 1 to 1.6 kilograms — roughly half the weight of a typical domestic cat, and small enough to sit in two cupped hands as a kitten. Standing only about 20 centimetres at the shoulder, with a short tail, it is often mistaken for a kitten or a young wildcat. Despite the name, only the pads and undersides of the feet are black; the rest of the coat is pale tawny-gold with dense dark spots that merge into rings on the legs and tail.
Why is it called the black-footed cat or "anthill tiger"?
The common name refers to the black soles and lower undersides of its paws, which stand out against the pale sand when the cat walks. The Afrikaans and local name "miershooptier," meaning "anthill tiger," comes from its habit of sheltering and denning inside hollow termite mounds, as well as in disused burrows dug by springhares, aardvarks, and porcupines. The "tiger" part is a nod to its outsized ferocity — the cat has a reputation, especially in San hunting stories, for attacking animals many times its size and never retreating, even though the tale that it can kill a giraffe by going for the throat is pure legend.
Can you keep a black-footed cat as a pet?
No. It is a Vulnerable wild species with an estimated wild population under 10,000, it is protected across its range, and it does extremely poorly in captivity. Black-footed cats are highly strung, need to hunt and roam over large distances, and suffer from a specific, often fatal kidney disease (AA amyloidosis) at very high rates in zoos. Even accredited institutions with dedicated breeding programmes find them one of the most challenging cats to keep alive and breeding. They do not tame, remain aggressive and secretive, and have none of the traits that make an animal suited to life with people.