CSG Species Accounts: Sand cat (Felis margarita)

Habitat and Distribution
Sand cats are found in both sandy and stony desert (Schauenberg 1974, Hemmer et al. 1976, Gasperetti et al. 1986, Harrison and Bates 1991, Abbadi 1992, Dragesco-Joffé 1993). For example, two specimens collected in eastern Egypt came from rather different habitat types. One was collected on a sandy plain near Lake Nasser with no vegetation in the immediate vicinity; the other was found in a rocky valley with widely scattered shrubs and trees (Goodman and Helmy 1986). Heptner and Sludskii (1972) describe the sand cat in Turkmenistan as most abundant amidst extensive sand massifs, as in the central Karakum where compacted soils are generally absent. The micro-distribution of the small mammals which form the sand cat’s prey is often clumped around vegetation and, especially during drought years, does not extend onto bare sand. However, following rains, the desert blooms and small mammals generally expand their ranges (Happold 1984). Sand cats occur only sparsely in the more clayey desert soils of the Ustyurt and Mangyshlak regions in the northern area between the Aral and Caspian seas (Heptner and Sludskii 1972).
It is therefore likely that sand cats range throughout the sandy interior of the Sahara and the deserts of South-West Asia, but at present there are no specimens from the following countries: Mauritania, Western Sahara, Mali, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran (although there is a report from the vicinity of Teheran [Weigel 1961], and two recent reports from the Moteh and Touran protected areas: Groves 1990, [M. Karami pers. comm. 1992]). No ecological explanation for these gaps in sand cat range has been put forward, and they are even more perplexing on a micro-scale. For example, sand cats are known from the Hoggar mountains of south-eastern Algeria (K. Kowalski in litt.; cited in de Smet 1989), the Aļr mountains of northern Niger (Pocock 1938; J. Newby pers. comm. to K. de Smet), and the Tibesti mountains of Chad (Hemmer et al. 1976), but not from the Adrar des Iforas massif of north-eastern Mali (K. de Smet in litt. 1993). There is a record of the sandcat from the area between the Hoggar and Aïr mountains (Hemmer et al. 1976), so the absence from the Adrar des Iforas is suspect. Similarly, while the sand cat is known from the Aravah Depression of southern Israel, it has not been found in the Negev Desert sands just to the west (H. Mendelssohn in litt. 1993).
Figure 5 illustrates the probable distribution of the sandcat. The lack of records from Libya and southern Afghanistan is particularly puzzling (Hufnagl 1972, Schauenberg 1974, Hemmer et al. 1976), and will probably be proved false with time. In the early 20th century, confirmed records were available only from north-western Africa, so that when the sand cat was found by Ognev (1926) in Turkmenistan, he described it as a new species. Arabia was the next area presumed to be a major gap in the sand cat’s range, until a living specimen from the Arabian peninsula was acquired by the London Zoo (Haltenorth 1953, Hemmer 1974a, Hemmer et al. 1976). Finally, Hemmer et al. (1976) commented on the unusual lack of records for Egypt despite numerous zoological expeditions, but the first specimen was collected in that country as their article was going to press (Osborn and Helmy 1980, Goodman and Helmy 1986).