This three-pound black-footed cat named Gaia might make you say “aww,” but don’t be fooled. She’s one of the world’s deadliest predators. With a 60 percent hunting success rate, black-footed cats—a wild species related to the domesticated cats people keep as pets—are far better than lions at catching prey. (Lions have roughly a 25 percent success rate.) Black-footed cats are lightning fast, killing 8 to 14 creatures per night and eating 3,000 rodents a year. Native to Africa, they number only about 9,700 in the wild, so conservationists are working to preserve the species. They hope to breed Gaia, who’s at Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas. And they also hope that her popularity with the public will motivate more zoos to create homes for black-footed cats. The cats are nocturnal and elusive, often hiding from visitors. That can make zoos reluctant to house them, Amanda Collins of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ black-footed cat consortium told The Washington Post. “If we do breed these animals but we have nowhere to put them, that doesn’t help us,” she said. “The more interest the public has in these cats, the more effort we can put into having a conservation effort for them.”