The sand cat (Felis margarita) is a small wild cat that inhabits sandy and stony deserts far from water sources. With its sandy to light grey fur, it is well camouflaged in a desert environment. Its head-and-body length ranges from with a long tail. Its short ears are set low on the sides of the head, aiding detection of prey moving underground. The long hair covering the soles of its paws insulates its pads against the extreme temperatures found in deserts.
The first sand cat known to scientists was discovered in the Algerian Sahara and described in 1858. To date, it has been recorded in several disjunct locations in Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Niger, Chad, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In Central Asia, it was first recorded in the Karakum Desert in 1925. The large gap between these two regions of its global range was partially closed in 1948, when a sand cat skin was found in an oasis of the Rub' al Khali in Oman. It is discontinuously distributed in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In the early 1970s, sand cats were caught in southwestern Pakistan and exported to zoos worldwide. Due to its wide distribution and large population, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
The sand cat usually rests in underground dens during the day and hunts at night. It moves on average at night in search of small rodents and birds. It also kills and consumes venomous snakes. In spring, the female gives birth to two to three kittens, which become sexually mature around the age of one year. The sand cat's ecological requirements are still poorly understood, as only a few in-depth studies targeting wild sand cat populations have been conducted.
Taxonomy
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 the 20th century, the following zoological specimens of sand cats were described: Eremaelurus thinobius was proposed as a species by Sergey Ognev in 1926. The specimen had been collected in the eastern Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. 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. aïrensis proposed by Pocock in 1938 was a female specimen collected in the Aïr Mountains in 1937. 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. In 2005, F. m. margarita, F. m. thinobia, F. m. scheffeli and F. m. harrisoni were recognised as valid taxa by W. Chris Wozencraft, who considered F. m. meinertzhageni and F. m. aïrensis synonyms of the nominate subspecies F. m. margarita. The Cat Classification Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group reviewed the existing information and in 2017 recognized only two subspecies based on morphological differences, namely:
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. Felis margarita thinobia, also called the Turkestan sand cat, Arabian sand cat, and Pakistan sand cat, it occurs in West and Central Asia. It is larger in size with less pronounced markings, a darker, more greyish coat, and only 2–3 rings on the tail.
Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of 47 individuals from across the sand cat's range showed that their haplotypes differed only by one to three base pair mutations. This low degree of genetic differentiation between the African and Asian sand cats indicates that the Sinai Peninsula may have been a barrier to gene flow.
Phylogeny 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. Analysis of their mitochondrial DNA indicates a genetic divergence of the Felis species at around . Both models agree that the jungle cat (F. chaus) was the first Felis species that diverged, followed by the black-footed cat (F. nigripes) and then the sand cat. It migrated into Africa, possibly during Pleistocene glaciation events. Migration was likely facilitated by extended periods of low sea levels between continents.
A fossil jaw and other skeletal remains of a sand cat were excavated in a Late Pleistocene cave in El Harhoura located near Temara in Morocco.
Characteristics
The sand cat's fur is of a pale, sandy, isabelline colour, but much lighter on the lower part of the head, around the nose, throat, and on the belly. A faint reddish line runs from the outer corner of each eye across the cheeks. There are dark brown to blackish bars on the limbs, and the tail has a black tip with two or three dark rings alternating with buff bands. Markings vary between individuals: some have neither spots nor stripes, some are faintly spotted, some have both spots and stripes. Its head is sandy brown. The large, greenish-yellow eyes are ringed with white, and the nose is blackish. Its whiskers are white and up to long. Its ears are tawny at the base and tipped with black. Its outer ear is similar to that of a domestic cat, but its ear canal is about twice the size. The magnitude of acoustic input-admittance is about five times higher than of a domestic cat. Additionally, hearing sensitivity of the sand cat is about 8 decibels greater than that of the domestic cat.
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 undersides of its paws are protected from extreme temperatures by a thick covering of fur. The long hairs growing between its toes create a cushion of fur over the foot pads, helping to insulate them while moving over hot sand. This feature makes the cat's tracks obscure and difficult to identify and follow.
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.
Distribution and habitat
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. It prefers flat or undulating terrain with sparse vegetation of grasses or small bushes; it avoids bare and shifting sand dunes, where little prey is available.
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. In Mali's Lake Faguibine area, one individual was shortly sighted by night in 2011. In southwestern Libya, it was sighted and photographed at multiple locations between 2017 and 2025. In the Ténéré Desert, sand cats were observed in the 1980s and between 2008 and 2015. 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. The sand cat was 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, it uses sand dune habitat in the hot season from May to September, and gravel valleys in addition during the cool season from October to April. In King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Royal Natural Reserve, it was also recorded foremost in sand dunes between December 2022 and March 2023. In the Al-Ula region, it was recorded in five protected areas between June 2024 and July 2025. 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 Qatar, it was recorded for the first time in Al-Ureiq Reserve in 2023.
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. Since 2002, the sand cat is considered locally extinct in Israel, as it has not been recorded since the turn of the century. 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 .