The smallest wild African cat is disappearing, and conservationists may not be able to prevent it from going extinct.
What's happening?
The black-footed cat, which weighs only a few pounds and looks like a domestic cat, lives only in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, Mongabay reported. There are 10,000 individuals in the wild, and the population has been dwindling for 500,000 years.
The animal is threatened by habitat loss and degradation, the changing climate, and disease, according to a January study. Habitat fragmentation is contributing to inbreeding in the 3 million-year-old species, whose "deleterious genetic mutations" and lack of genetic diversity is associated with the fatal disease amyloidosis.
Predators such as caracals and black-backed jackals are also killing a large portion of the cats. As big cats including lions, leopards, and cheetahs are pushed toward extinction by humans, these medium-size predators are taking their places in the black-footed cats' range.
The black-footed cats are also being driven to inhospitable riverbeds by increasingly frequent and severe drought in Namibia. In one study last year, all the black-footed cats in a sample died.
Why is this important?
The genetic study helped improve the understanding of the rare species — perhaps the "most endearing" cat on the continent, according to Mongabay. Black-footed cats have evolved as highly successful hunters with great hearing and the ability to track fast-moving objects. They eat 20% of their body weight in prey every night.
Their problems, though, include almost 40% of studied populations dying every year. In the future, increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather — such as Namibia's yearslong drought — will only contribute to the issues.
"I currently really have a total crash of the population in my study areas," Alexander Sliwa of the Black-footed Cat Working Group told Mongabay.
What's being done about black-footed cat conservation efforts?
The study authors highlighted "the urgency of investigating genomic variations and formulating effective strategies for small felids, which are integral to ecological balance and biodiversity."
The most important aspect of protecting vulnerable species, however, is funding. Without money to do the work, researchers can't produce data that sparks conservation efforts.
"For the black-footed cat and other threatened species, understanding the genetic susceptibility to disease is important, Sliwa says, but on its own isn't enough to conserve wild populations," Mongabay stated. "For that, you need field data and funding to support conservation work on the ground, he adds."
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