Each year, the Kansas City Zoo Run features a different endangered species. This year, our featured endangered species is the BLACK-FOOTED CAT!

Portions of proceeds for the 2011 Zoo Run for the Black-Footed Cat will go to the Black-Footed Cat Working Group that is dedicated to research, tracking and conservation of Black-Footed Cats.

The black-footed cat is Africa's smallest wild cat species. They typically weigh between 4-6 pounds.  At night, its large eyes reflect any light with an intensely blue sheen, thanks to the mirror-like layer behind the retina – the tapetum lucidum – which makes double use of the available light.  Its name stems from the black soles of the feet. Its sleek, tawny fur is marked with bold, black spots and black rings around the legs, which give this diminutive hunter a perfect camouflage, especially on moonlit nights.

Black-footed cats inhabit the arid steppes and grassland savannas of the Kalahari, the Karoo deserts and parts of the South African Highveld, often in association with termite mounds.  Black-footed cats are opportunistic hunters, feeding on 40 different vertebrate species. Their varied food spectrum comprises of rodents and shrews (55%), small birds (20%), large, soft-bodied insects, spiders, scorpions, small snakes and geckos.

This secretive and retiring cat is the rarest of the African felids. In the IUCN Red List it is listed as vulnerable. In the larger part of their range they are protected, but hunting them is prohibited only in Botswana and South Africa. The total effective population size is less than 10,000 mature breeding individuals. Due to loss of its prey base through habitat degradation by overgrazing, indirect persecution by poisoning and predator control the population is declining.