The tail is short, narrowly black-tipped, and less than half the length of the body and head the legs are relatively long. The underfur hairs are dense, fine, wavy, and shorter than guard hairs. The hairs on the cat’s coat are about 25 to 30 mm long, they are grey at the base, and conform to the general color of the upper parts throughout their length except that some have white, others have dark subapical rings with white or tawny tips. The cat has three throat rings, black in Felis n. nigripes cat is tawny in color whereas Felis n. Their legs have thick dark transverse stripes with dark under feet. The two subspecies only differ in fur and marking color and have not yet been confirmed to be genetically different. thomasi was described by Shortridge in 1931 from a Karoo specimen. nigripes was first described by Burchell in 1824 from a Kalahari specimen and Felis n. Two subspecies have been described, Felis nigripes nigripes and Felis nigripes thomasi. The black or dark brown under feet is the distinguishing feature of the cat. Although the cat is shy in nature, it is still as vicious as the rest of the felid family. The cat is characterized by a small stocky body, weighs approximately 2 kg and the whole-body length is 50 to 72 cm. It is the smallest wild African cat and the second smallest cat in the world. The Black-footed cat ( Felis nigripes) is a solitary, secretive and nocturnal felid endemic to the south-west arid zone of southern Africa. Scientific name and classification: Animalia Chordata- Mammalia-Carnivora-Felidae-Felis-nigripes ( Felis nigripes, Burchell 1824).Ĭommon names: English: Black-footed cat, Small-spotted cat Sesotho: Tsetsa, Xhosa: Ingwe yeziduli Afrikaans: Klein gekolde kat, Swart-poot kat, Meirshooptie Tswana: Sebala, Sebala-molokwane, Sebelabala.
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