Draggingtree Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 Africa’s Smallest and Deadliest Wildcat Is Making a Comeback in Texas Thirteen black-footed cats have been born at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, in Glen Rose. The felines weigh barely four pounds, but watch out: they’re killers. By Kristen Steenbeeke February 28, 20243 A black-footed kitten born at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.Courtesy of Fossil Rim Wildlife Center Rhaegal and Morgan have been on a date for a few weeks now. Morgan seems sleepy. He yawns; his eyes become glassy slits. Rhae, on the other hand, is all energy. She prowls around the yard, vocalizing, crouching, puffing outward, almost spherical—all two and a half pounds of her. “She’s running around like a little madwoman,” says Amanda Collins, the carnivore curator at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, in Glen Rose, an hour southwest of Fort Worth. Nine-year-old Rhae and twelve-year-old Morgan, two black-footed cats, recently matched on a dating app—at least that’s how Collins explains it to me. In reality it’s a genetics database, also known as a studbook, used by breeding programs like this one. “They don’t get to pick who they want to mate with based on looks—it’s who’s going to create the most genetically diverse offspring,” she says. If Rhae doesn’t fall for Morgan after spending a month or so in the same enclosure, no worries: the scientists at Fossil Rim have another eligible male in waiting, preciously named Smidgen.:snip: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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