Photos by Jessica Babich
of Wild Revolution
signal
Searching for
ry
et
of the telem
collars
An ideal site
was
located for th
e cats'
pre-release en
closure
Rescue and release of
Black-footed cats
By Nicci Wright
Senior Animal Manager,
FreeMe Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
“Would you take two ‘boskatte’?” the
woman on the phone wanted to know.
“Of course,” I said, even though I wasn’t
exactly sure what species a ‘boskat’ was!
Two Black-footed kittens arrived at
FreeMe Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in
Gauteng, with ears flattened and hissing
at us. They’d been found abandoned
near Delmas and were raised by a farmer
and his family for 3 months. This species
doesn’t get tamer with time, instead they
get wilder and therefore they aren’t as
cute and cuddly as they look! The rarest
of the African felids, these two cats were
about to lead me on another wonderful
journey of discovery!
About Black-footed Cats
The Black-footed Cat is Africa’s smallest
cat species and second smallest in the
world. Females’ average weight is 1 to
10 | All About Cats • Issue 72
1.5kg and males around 1.9kg. Adults are
attractively patterned with black spots on
the body, which join to become bands
across their backs. The legs and tail are
ringed with black and the tail has a black
tip. The tail is characteristically short,
less than 40% of the head-body length,
between 14-20 cm. The background
colour of adults varies from off-white
to reddish tawny and their colouring
provides excellent camouflage, especially
during moonlit nights. Their name
“black-footed” comes from the fact that
they have black fur on the undersides
of their feet and their pawpads are
black. The fur is thick between the pads
providing protection against heat and
cold. Their preferred habitat is the more
arid area such as the Karoo, stretching
east across the grasslands of Gauteng
towards Mpumalanga. Nocturnal and
solitary, these special cats hunt a variety
of rodents and birds, sometimes making a
kill every hour! Actually seeing a Blackfooted Cat is very special because they’re
secretive at night and spend their days
safely underground, favouring Spring
Hare burrows which offer them good
protection from predators such as jackal.
The release project
Knowing how endangered they are,
I carefully researched release options
and sought guidance from specialists. I
consulted with Duncan MacFadyen who
manages research and conservation on
the nine Diamond Route Reserves which
include the Ezemvelo Game Reserve,
outside Bronkhorstspruit. This is an
excellent site for several reasons: its close
to where the two cats were found and the
grassland offers perfect habitat in which
Black-footed cats
the species does occur but not in large numbers. It is critical to
a soft-release project like this that there are reliable, practical
and ethical people on the ground. Incredibly, Ezemvelo has all
of these ingredients! We then met with Dr Alex Sliwa (Project
Leader of the BFC Working Group and IUCN Cat SG member).
Happily, we all agreed on what was needed for our special
release project which included building a pre-release enclosure
at Ezemvelo and ordering telemetry tracking equipment.
Meanwhile, the cats were in the first stage of their rehabilitation
which includes cage enrichment and a diet which will stimulate
their natural instincts. Recognition of the species’ natural prey
of rats, mice and birds is critical in order to spark hunting
behaviour.
We established a public appeal for funding to cover the costs of
the enclosure and telemetry equipment and were amazed when
the generous donations covered all the costs!
The cats were taken to the National Zoo in Pretoria for DNA
sampling and a general check by Dr Adrian Tordiffe who
gave them a clean bill of health. They were then put into the
enclosure on the reserve and fed daily by reserve staff Ewann,
Daniel and Maroti Tau.
Responsible rehabilitation of wildlife includes post-release
monitoring which tells us how the animal is managing with
hunting, interacting etc. To achieve this, we tranquillised the
cats and Dr Alex Sliwa fitted the telemetry collars. On June 16
2011 they were released and the big adventure began! Reserve
staffers Ewann and Daniel were trained and tasked with
following the cats after their release, a tricky job considering
their size and the distances they cover.
The cats were followed nightly, sometimes at -8.5˚ temperatures,
their locations GPS recorded and their behaviours noted. We
were interested to see how the cats’ instincts came out – they
hunted successfully, chose adequate dens in disused Aardvark
and Springhare burrows and were wary of other wildlife. The
female quickly set up a home territory while the male left the
range after a few months. We were all thrilled to learn that
the female had bred with a wild male Black-footed Cat and
produced two kittens in early December 2011!
Hours of secretive behaviour have been captured on film
by Wild Revolution, adding another dimension to our data
collection. This has been a wonderfully positive collaboration
between scientists, conservationists and wildlife rehabilitators
and through this unique project, we’ve gained incredible new
insight, data and information on the behaviour of this species,
contributing to their conservation. Because this is the first
monitored release of hand-reared Black-footed Cats, the unique
film footage and data collected is very important for use in
the future release of captive bred cats, which we know can be
successfully done!
Amazingly, three weeks ago, FreeMe received another young
female Black-footed Cat, so the whole process will start again!
The Black-footed cats were fitted
with telemetry collars in order to
follow the cats after their release
and monitor their progress.
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