- New footage shows Gaia posing on a log in her enclosure showing off her black stripes and tiny toes and looking around curiously twitching her ears
- The three-pound feline may be cute but is also the world’s most lethal wild cat
- Gaia arrived in Utah last October from Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas where she was born to a litter of four in May
The adorable black-footed African cat Gaia poses in sweet new videos released by her zoo home in Utah.
Gaia’s big eyes and fluffy exterior disguise that she is in fact the world’s most lethal wild cat.
New footage released by the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City shows Gaia posing on a log in her enclosure, showing off her black stripes and tiny toes.
Another clip posted to the zoo’s popular Instagram account shows the three-pound cat looking around curiously, and twitching her ears.
‘So cute and fluffy and soooo deadly’ one Gaia fan wrote under the video.
Adorable black-footed African cat Gaia poses in sweet new videos released by her new zoo home in Utah
New footage released by the Hogle Zoo shows Gaia posing on a log in her enclosure showing off her black stripes and tiny toes
‘She’s fluffy, she’s sassy, and she’s deadly,’ another gushed.
Gaia arrived in Utah last October from Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas where she was born to a litter of four in May.
After being unveiled to the public in January the speckled feline was described as a ‘pretty feisty cat,’ and a ‘mighty warrior’ by the zoo’s Associate Director Bob Cisneros.
Gaia is on a strict diet of ground bone, skeletal muscle and organs and ‘the occasional mouse that’s already been humanely euthanized through the zoo’s distributors,’ Cisernos said last month.
The zoo took in Gaia upon a breeding recommendation from the Black-Footed Cat Consortium.
The Hogle Zoo is home to a male black-footed cat named Ryder that they plan to introduce to Gaia in the future.
‘Gaia’s introduction to Ryder, the male black-footed cat, is in the cards, but we’ll let these two feline friends get acquainted when Gaia reaches maturity,’ the zoo said earlier this year.
Black-foot cats are deadly hunters, with a 60 percent success rate compared to the approximately 20 percent success rate among larger cats.
Despite Gaia’s extremely unassuming appearance, black-foot cats are considered to be among the deadliest cats in the world
Gaia, a tiny, black-footed African cat, arrived in Utah from Glen Rose, Texas, last October after being born in May
Black-foot cats are deadly hunters, with a 60 percent success rate compared to the approximately 20 percent success rate among larger cats
The carnivores can eat around 3,000 rodents per year in their natural habitats, according to the Hogle Zoo.
Pictured: Gaia snacking on a bone, which is part of the strict and specific diet she is currently being kept on
The carnivores can eat around 3,000 rodents per year in their natural habitats, according to the Hogle Zoo. 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 miniature stature, they can also spring up to five feet in the air and six-and-a-half feet in distance.
Black-footed cats are native to Africa and are found mostly in the arid eastern parts of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. They are the smallest species of wild cat found on the continent.
In the Afrikaans language, they are called ‘ant-hill tigers.’
The species is listed as vulnerable – just one step before endangered – by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource.
A 2016 assessment revealed that only around 9,700 of the killer cats are living in the wild in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
