Principal Threats Although the current lack of knowledge about the species’ status and biology makes an assessment premature, the sand cat appears to be one of the least threatened felid species. Its preferred habitat is not being lost or degraded; if so-called “desertification” is a real phenomenon (Stevens 1994), it should actually benefit the species. Heptner and Sludskii (1972) were of the opinion that sand cat populations in the Central Asian deserts were stable and not threatened, despite harvests at that time of the order of 1-200 skins per year. De Smet (1989) reported that oasis residents in Algeria did not consider it a threat to poultry, and did not trap it to sell as a pet. On the other hand, Toubou nomads living north-west of Lake Chad consider the sand cat a frequent chicken thief, which readily enters their camps in the evenings, but they do not generally retaliate due to traditional religious respect for the small cats because of their association with the Prophet Mohammed (Dragesco-Joffé 1993).

© 1996 IUCN - The World Conservation Union