Sand Cat

zoo, Denmark]] Felis margarita was the scientific name proposed by Victor Loche in 1858 who first described a sand cat specimen found in the area of "Négonça" in the northern Algerian Sahara. This holotype specimen appears to have been lost. The species was named after the French General Jean Auguste Margueritte. In 1938, Reginald Innes Pocock also considered it a species, but subordinated it to the genus Felis using the scientific name Felis thinobius. Later he considered it a sand cat subspecies, which to date is widely recognised. *F. m. meinertzhageni proposed by Pocock in 1938 was a sand cat skin from the Algerian Sahara. * F. m. scheffeli proposed by German zoologist Helmut Hemmer in 1974 was described on the basis of seven sand cats that had been captured alive in Pakistan's Nushki desert. * F. m. harrisoni proposed by Hemmer, Grubb and Groves in 1976 was described on the basis of a skin and skull of an adult male sand cat captured in 1967 in Umm al Samim, Oman. In 1974, F. m. margarita, F. m. thinobia and F. m. scheffeli were temporarily recognized as valid taxa. At the time, it was considered possible that sand cats eventually recorded in Afghanistan and Iran might constitute distinct subspecies. * Felis margarita margarita, also called the Saharan sand cat, occurs in North Africa. It is smaller in size with brighter, more yellow fur, with more pronounced markings and 2–6 rings on the tail.

Phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear DNA in tissue samples from all Felidae species revealed that the evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia in the Miocene around . Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at around . The sand cat is part of an evolutionary lineage that is estimated to have genetically diverged from the common ancestor of the Felis species around , based on analysis of their nuclear DNA. |2= }} |2=Sand cat }} |2=Black-footed cat }} |2=Jungle cat }} }} |2=other Felinae lineages }} }} }} |2=Pantherinae }} }} |header2=mitochondrial DNA: |cladogram2= |2= }} |2=Sand cat }} |2=Black-footed cat }} |2=Jungle cat }} }} }} |2=other Felinae lineages }} }} |2=Pantherinae }} }} }}

long. In Central Asia, the sand cat's winter coat is very long and thick, with hairs reaching up to in length. Its claws on the forelimbs are short and very sharp, and claws on the hind feet are small and blunt. The sand cat is characterized by a flat, wide head, short legs, and a relatively long tail of . It stands at the shoulder and weighs . The head-and-body length ranges from . The long ears are set low, giving a broad, flat appearance to the head. Its skull is arched in lateral outline with wide zygomatic arches. The pinnae of the ears are triangular, and the ear canal is very wide, giving the cat an enhanced sense of hearing. The auditory bullae and the passages from the external ears to the ear drums are greatly enlarged compared to other small wild cats; the inner parts of the ears are protected from foreign objects by long, closely spaced white hairs. It has a bite force at the canine tip of 155.4 Newton and a bite force quotient at the canine tip of 136.7.

The sand cat inhabits both sandy and stony deserts. It is widely but not contiguously distributed in the deserts of North Africa and Southwest and Central Asia. In the Western Sahara, sand cats were sighted and photographed in the Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab region several times between 2005 and 2016. Sand cat kittens that had been hiding beneath a tuft of Panicum turgidum grass were sighted and photographed in the area in April 2017. In Algeria, one individual was recorded near a salt cedar mound in the Ahaggar Mountains in 2008. No confirmed records are known in Mauritania, Tunisia and Libya. In Mali's Lake Faguibine area, one individual was shortly sighted by night in 2011. Sightings in Egypt's rocky Western and Eastern Deserts date to the mid 1980s. In the Sinai peninsula, sand cats were sighted in the mid 1990s. On the Arabian Peninsula, a sand cat skin was discovered by Wilfred Thesiger in 1948 in an oasis of the Rub' al Khali desert. In Saudi Arabia's Mahazat as-Sayd Protected Area, sand cats were captured and encountered trapped in wire mesh fence surrounding the adjacent Saja Umm Ar-Rimth Natural Reserve in the country's Najd region. In the Tabuk Region, two sand cats were killed by hunters in 2013 and 2016; and one individual was captured by a local farmer in 2014 and kept in a cage. Sand cats were also observed in 2014–2015 in three localities in the Turaif area in northern Saudi Arabia. In 'Uruq Bani Ma'arid on the western edge of the Rub' al Khali, sand cats use gravel valley and sand dune habitats in the cool season from October to April; in the hot season from May to September, they mainly use sand dune habitat. In Al Ain Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, a sand cat was sighted in a gravel plain between dunes in 2003. Several sand cats were recorded in a protected area in Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi between April and December 2015, after an absence of sightings for ten years. In Oman's Dhofar Governorate, it was recorded at several locations between 2021 and 2022. In southern Israel, four sand cats were radio-collared and tracked over a few months in the late 1980s in the Arabah Valley, which lies mostly in Jordan. The monitored sand cats frequently roamed in military camps of the Israeli army and crossed the international border. In Jordan, a sand cat was sighted for the first time in 1997 during a survey in a desert area in the eastern part of the country. In Syria, sand cats were sighted and photographed by a camera-trap in a protected area near Palmyra in 2000 and 2001. In western Iraq, sand cats inhabit desert areas in the Najaf, Muthanna and Al Anbar Governorates. In Iran, it occurs in arid flat plains and sandy desert of Abbas'abad Wildlife Reserve, Kavir National Park and Petergan Rural District. Between March 2014 and July 2016, sand cats were also observed at elevations of in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, foremost in black saxaul dominated habitat. In central Iran, sand cats were observed foremost in sand dunes and sabulous areas during surveys in 2014–2016. In Pakistan, the first sand cat was detected in 1966 near the Lora River in Balochistan. In the late 1960s, sand cats were also encountered in the Chagai Hills, an extremely arid area comprising rolling sand dunes and stony plains at an elevation of about . In Central Asia, the sand cat was known to occur up to the late 1960s in the Karakum Desert from the Ustyurt Plateau in the northwest to the Kopet Dag Mountains in the south, and from the Kyzylkum Desert to the Syr Darya River and the northern border to Afghanistan. Adult sand cats with kittens were photographed in the southern Kyzylkum Desert in spring 2013 and 2014.

The sand cat is solitary, except during the mating season and when a female has kittens. It buries its feces and covers it with sand. In Morocco, a male sand cat travelled in 30 hours. A female sand cat moved in an area of during six days, and two males had home ranges of .

In the Ténéré, a desert region in south central Sahara, sand cats were observed preying foremost on small rodents, and the young of cape hare (Lepus capensis), but also hunting greater hoopoe lark (Alaemon alaudipes), desert monitor (Varanus griseus), sandfish (Scincus scincus) and venomous Cerastes vipers. If they caught more than they could eat, they buried the remains for later consumption. They satisfied their moisture requirements from their prey but drank water if it was available. The Toubou people have reported incidents of sand cats coming to their camps at night and drinking fresh camel milk. They were observed preying on jirds (Meriones), Cairo spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus), desert lark (Ammomanes deserti) and small reptiles. Sand cats were collected in eastern Karakum Desert in the late 1950s. Their feces and stomachs contained remains of tolai hare (Lepus tolai), small rodents, birds, small reptiles and invertebrates.

Oestrus in female sand cats lasts from five to six days, during which they frequently call and scent mark. After a gestation of 59 to 66 days, they give birth to a litter of two to three kittens. The kittens weigh at birth, and have spotted pale yellow or reddish fur. They grow relatively rapidly, reaching three quarters of the adult size within five months, are fully independent by the end of their first year and reach sexual maturity soon after the first year. The life expectancy of wild sand cats has not been documented.

Habitat degradation and loss of sand dunes due to human activities are considered major threats to sand cat populations in Western Asia, where uncontrolled hunting and persecution of predators using poisoned baits are common practices. The sand cat's small-mammal prey-base depends on having adequate vegetation, which may experience large fluctuations due to drought or declines due to desertification and loss of natural vegetation. Fencing of protected areas threatens the sand cat in Saudi Arabia, where several individuals were found stuck in fences. In Iran, vulnerable arid ecosystems are being rapidly degraded by human settlement and activity, especially livestock grazing. In Uzbekistan, drifting sand areas are increasing, as local people uproot shrubs for use as firewood and as a substrate for silk worm (Bombyx mori) cocoons. In the Sahara, sand cats have been killed in traps laid out by inhabitants of oases targeting foxes and golden jackals (Canis aureus) or in retaliation for killing poultry. Several cases of sand cats having been killed by domestic dogs (C. familiaris) were reported in Israel and Iran. In Israel, the sand cat was thought to be threatened by predation from caracals (Caracal caracal) and wolves (Canis lupus). Sand cats have also been caught for the pet trade in the United Arab Emirates and in Iraq. In Baghdad, two sand cats were presented to a local nursery in 2012 that had been sold as pets; they died a week later. In 2014 and 2015, four sand cats were trapped alive by local truffle collectors and offered for sale in a wildlife market in Baghdad; their fate is unknown. Sand cats may be at risk of transfer of diseases from domestic and feral cats encroaching on desert areas. In Saudi Arabia, one of 17 wild-caught sand cats was tested positive for feline leukaemia virus.

Felis margarita is listed on CITES Appendix II. Hunting is prohibited in Algeria, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, and Tunisia. No legal protection exists in Egypt, Mali, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

, England]] Since the mid 1960s, sand cats were captured in Pakistan for trade and export to Europe until the Pakistani government ceased issuing permits in 1974. Captive sand cats are highly sensitive to respiratory diseases and infection of the upper respiratory tract. This is the main cause of death in adults. The most common disease is infectious rhinotracheitis. With sand cats being very susceptible to respiratory infections, they have to be kept in very arid enclosures, where humidity and temperature do not fluctuate. The captive population within the Species Survival Plan for sand cat is based on eight founders. In 2010, two sand cat kittens were born at the Al Ain Zoo after the first procedure of in vitro fertilisation and transfer of frozen-thawed embryos into the oviducts of ovulating females. In July 2012, four sand cat kittens were born at the Ramat Gan Zoo as part of the European Endangered Species Programme.