Adorable black-footed cat Gaia whose species is world’s deadliest feline gives her best Blue Steel looks in new videos from her Utah zoo home
Adorable black-footed African cat Gaia poses in sweet new videos released by her zoo home in Utah.
Gaia’s big eyes and fluffy appearance disguise the fact that she is in fact the most deadly wildcat in the world.
New images released by Salt Lake City’s Hogle Zoo show Gaia posing on a tree trunk in her enclosure, showing off her black stripes and little toes.
Another clip posted to the zoo’s popular Instagram account shows the three-pound cat looking around curiously and wiggling her ears.
“So cute and fluffy and so deadly,” one Gaia fan wrote under the video.
Adorable black-footed African cat Gaia poses in beautiful new videos released by her new zoo in Utah
New images released by the Hogle Zoo show Gaia posing on a tree trunk in her enclosure and showing off her black stripes and little toes
“She’s fluffy, she’s sassy and she’s deadly,” said another.
Gaia arrived in Utah last October from the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas, where she was born in May to a litter of four.
After being unveiled to the public in January, the speckled feline was described by zoo deputy director Bob Cisneros as a “pretty feisty cat” and a “mighty warrior.”
Gaia is on a strict diet of ground up bones, skeletal muscle and organs and “the occasional mouse that has already been humanely euthanized by the zoo’s distributors,” Cisernos said last month.
The zoo took Gaia in on breeding advice from the Black-Footed Cat Consortium.
The Hogle Zoo is home to a male black-footed cat named Ryder, who they plan to introduce to Gaia in the future.
“Gaia’s introduction to Ryder, the male black-footed cat, is planned, but we will introduce these two feline friends when Gaia is an adult,” the zoo said earlier this year.
Black-footed cats are deadly hunters, with a 60 percent success rate compared to the roughly 20 percent success rate of larger cats.
Despite Gaia’s extremely unassuming appearance, black-footed cats are considered one of the deadliest cats in the world
Gaia, a small, black-footed African cat, arrived in Utah from Glen Rose, Texas, last October after being born in May
Black-footed cats are deadly hunters, with a 60 percent success rate compared to the roughly 20 percent success rate of larger cats
According to the Hogle Zoo, the carnivores can eat about 3,000 rodents per year in their natural habitat.
In the photo: Gaia eats a bone, which is part of the strict and specific diet she currently follows
According to the Hogle Zoo, the carnivores can eat about 3,000 rodents per year in their natural habitat. They also eat birds, reptiles, insects and spiders.
“These guys are voracious hunters. They have a reputation for being a very fierce cat,” Cisneros explained.
Despite their small stature, they can also jump up to five feet in the air and at a distance of five feet.
Black-footed cats are native to Africa and are mainly found in the arid eastern parts of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. They are the smallest species of wild cats found on the continent.
In the African language they are called ‘anthill tigers’.
The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources – just one step before it is threatened with extinction.
A 2016 study found that only about 9,700 of the fatal cats live in the wild in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.