A small cat with tawny fur, dark spots and bands, and black foot pads.
Its tawny coat has black or brown spots that merge into bands on the neck, legs, and tail. The short tail ends in black.
In southern Namibia, researchers studied 50 dens used by five radio-collared female black-footed cats over four weeks. They used laser measurements to record the width and height of the entrances. Forty-nine dens most closely matched the dimensions of springhare burrows. The cats spend daylight hours underground, and these measurements showed how holes made by another animal serve as their resting places.
Each female used an average of 11.6 den sites and stayed in one for about two consecutive days before moving. When kittens reached 44–50 days old, mothers shifted from spending roughly six days at each den to changing dens every day. The pattern of den use changed as the kittens grew, linking the cats’ daily shelter choices with the springhare burrows they occupied.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The study found that female black-footed cats in southern Namibia used springhare burrows as daytime refuges and maternity dens. The authors call for more work on den sites where springhares are absent and on whether local persecution of springhares affects cat survival.