If you have no resistance to cute animals and like cats, then it can definitely make the corners of your mouth rise for a while. In the BBC documentary "Big Cats", Africa’s smallest feline black-footed cat is described as "Africa’s most deadly (the deadliest)" cat, and it is shared on YouTube In the video, the black-footed cat is called " the most lethal 的猫".
If you say the cutest, cutest, or whatever, you can put the words "most deadly" and "most lethal" in a slap-sized cat Are you serious about it? And looking at its cuteness, you can't see where it is deadly. Are black-footed cats really that fierce?
Africa's smallest cat-the small and cute black-footed cat!
Black-footed cat (Felis nigripes), English name: Black-footed cat, named after the black sole of the foot, belongs to the cat subfamily (Felis) animal, is the second smallest in the world in body size The cats of (the smallest of is the rusty leopard cat from India and Sri Lanka), which mainly inhabit arid and semi-arid desert regions, bushes and savanna in Africa, and currently only in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. The country has found its traces. ps: Felis is Latin for cats. The specific name of nigripes comes from nigri, meaning black or dark, and pes stands for feet.
The black-footed cat is very small, like a small tabby cat. It is about 20 cm tall and 35-45 cm long (without tail). The average length of its tail is 15 to 20 cm, which is about half the length of the body. Male black-footed cats weigh between 1.7-2.4 kg, and females weigh only 1-1.6 kg. Looking back at the big orange in my own home, the black-footed cat is really a small one...
The black-footed cat is "the deadliest" and "the most lethal"?
From the weight data of black-footed cats, an ordinary adult lion is about 200 times that. Why does the BBC say they are the deadliest cats? Is there any brilliant record? The basis given by the BBC is the predation success rate of black-footed cat .
As a nocturnal animal, black-footed cat has a 60% success rate in hunting . In contrast, the predation success rate of lion and leopard is only between 20% and 25%. . When night falls, the black-footed cat becomes very active (between sunset and sunrise). According to data, it conducts hunting attempts approximately every 30 minutes, and can kill 10-14 rodents or birds in one night, with an average of once every 50 minutes. In just one night, more prey than leopards caught in 6 months.
In addition, in the legend of the Bushman (the indigenous people of "God Is Crazy"), a black-footed cat can jump and bite through the carotid artery of a giraffe. There is no doubt that this is a clearly exaggerated story. After all, in reality, a lion can't handle a giraffe.
If predation success rate is used to define “deadly”, then what about the blue whales and humpback whales in the ocean, each of them eats tons of food , Then the lethal lethality is too great. However, from the perspective of animal protection propaganda, the title "most deadly" has indeed attracted people's attention and understanding to a certain extent. Protection begins with understanding.
As for lethality, it means damage to the ecological environment, right? According to the latest research, domestic cats with an active area of less than 1 square kilometer kill an average of 50 to 120 prey per year, and the impact on wildlife is wild catsAbout 2-10 times that of animals. This is called lethality, right? After all, the existence of black-footed cats is to control the number of rodents and how to kill them.
However, the black-footed cat is indeed very brave, but it is actually forced by the "hungry".
According to research, in the black-footed cat’s diet, birds, small mammals (such as gerbils, mice) and insects are the main food; measured by weight, 53% of the total prey weight consumed It is composed of organisms weighing less than 30-40 grams. Large prey such as hares account for about 32% of the total weight, and carrion accounts for about 15%.
Among all cats, will eat 10-20% of the body weight of food to maintain their energy consumption due to their metabolism, whether it is a big cat or a kitten. Take the tiger as an example. The tiger usually eats 20% of its body weight in a single predation, but after a meal, it can stay without food for several days. Black-footed cats can capture 10-14 birds and mammals in one night. The combined prey weighs about 0.25-0.3 kg, which is about 20% of the body weight of black-footed cats.
Because it is too sunny during the day, it can only come out at night (rodents usually come out at night). Therefore, in order not to be hungry, black-footed cats can walk 20 miles (32 kilometers) every night to find prey; in order to hunt small birds, their bodies have evolved to jump 2 meters away and 1.4 meters high.
How is the combat power of the black-footed cat?
Black-footed cats belong to the cat genus. The cat genus also includes desert cats, jungle cats, desert cats, wild cats / tabby cats, etc. The body is basically slightly larger or smaller than domestic cats, of which the largest body is the jungle cat . Receptor type restrictions, they basically can only prey on rodents, small birds, frogs and insects, mostly prey weighing less than 1 kg. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of black-footed cats and even the entire cat genus is 渣渣级Others.
ps: There are 40 species of cats in the cat family, which are divided into leopard subfamily and cat subfamily. The leopard subfamily is what we often call tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, and snow leopards. Their calls are wailing roars, and they are all predators at the top of the food chain. The calls of the cat subfamily are "meows", such as cougars, cheetahs, lynxes, etc. The strongest is the cougar.
Conclusion:
Anyway, the bravery and cuteness of black-footed cats is beyond doubt. However, statistics show that the number of black-footed cats has gradually declined in recent years and has been listed as vulnerable since 2011, and their survival conditions are worrying. Although 黑足猫 eats at least about 3000 rodents every year, it should be said that they are "friends of farmers", but they face many man-made threats: local overgrazing leads to fewer prey and misuses. Feeding on animals poisoned by farmers, poisonous locusts, and domestic dogs digging holes to make them homeless... At present, some animal protection groups have launched rehabilitation programs for black-footed cats, but I believe this process is long and difficult!
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