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Justine McDaniel reports The world’s deadliest cat is deceptively cute. Meet Gaia:
She weighs less than three pounds, she makes you go aww, and she’s one of the best killers on the planet.
Gaia, an 8-month-old black-footed cat, is the newest resident at Utah’s Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. She’s part of an effort to conserve her at-risk breed — a pint-size powerhouse species whose hunting prowess makes it the world’s deadliest cat.
Adorably big-eyed and smaller than a house cat, black-footed cats are far more successful at hunting than lions. They can jump up to five feet in the air and 6½ feet in distance; they kill eight to 14 meals per night and can eat 3,000 rodents a year.
“They’re considered the fierce cat,” said Bob Cisneros, Hogle Zoo’s associate director of animal care, who described kitten Gaia as a “mighty warrior.”
“These guys are voracious hunters,” he said.