Sand Cat

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Sand Cat

The Sand Cat (Felis margarita) is a small wild cat

Felinae

Felinae is a subfamily of the Family Felidae which includes the genera and species listed below. Most are small to medium-sized cats, although the group does include some larger animals, such as the Cougar and Cheetah....
distributed over Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
n and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
n deserts. The name "desert cat" is reserved for a subspecies of the true wildcat

Wildcat

Wildcat is a small felid native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa.Wildcat may also refer to members of the genus Lynx:...
, but it would be appropriate for this species. It lives in those arid areas that are too hot and dry even for the desert cat: the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe....
, the Arabian Desert

Arabian Desert

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
. It lives for about 13 years in captivity.

The length averages almost 50 cm (20 in), plus a 30 cm (12 in) tail

Tail

The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals and birds....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Sand Cat (Felis margarita) is a small wild cat

Felinae

Africa

Asia

Wildcat

Sahara

Arabian Desert

Iran

Pakistan

Tail

Head

In anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth . Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilateria do....
s are conspicuously broad, and their ear

Ear

The ear is the sense organ that detects sounds. The vertebrate ear shows a common biology from fish to humans, with variations in structure according to order and species....
s are large and pointed. The colour of the fur

Fur

Fur is a Hair of any non-human mammal, also known as the pelage. It may consist of short ground hair, long guard hair, and, in some cases, medium awn hair....
is a sandy yellow, with pallid bars, which are sometimes hardly visible. Generally the bars are more visible in the African subspecies. The mucosa of eyelid

Eyelid

An eyelid is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye. With the exception of the prepuce and the labia minora, it has the thinnest skin of the whole body....
s is a striking black. The fur on the tip of the tail is black. The paw

PAW

PAW may refer to:*...
s are covered with long hairs which protect the skin against hot sand. The sand cat can survive in temperature

Temperature

In physics, temperature is a physical property of a Physical system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that feels hotter generally has the greater temperature....
s ranging from to .

In the daytime the sand cat hides under rocks. At night it hunts for rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an Order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing Incisors#The_Rodent_incisor in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s, lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a large and widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 5,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains....
s and insect

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s. Since the Sand Cat obtains all the water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
it needs from eating its prey, it mostly stays far away from watering points. Sand cats congregate only for mating so numbering them is a difficult task. It seems however that its numbers have been declining in the Arabian desert

Arabian Desert

The Arabian Desert is a vast desert wilderness stretching from Yemen to the Persian Gulf and Oman to Jordan and Iraq. It occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula with an area of 2,330,000 square kilometers ....
following a rarefaction of its prey. In 2007, the first four kittens born in captivity are being raised at the Al Ain Zoo in the United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven states situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia....
as an effort to preserve the local fauna.

There are six subspecies:

Felis margarita margarita, Sahara
Sahara

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe....
Felis margarita airensis
Felis margarita harrisoni, Arabia
Felis margarita meinertzhageni
Felis margarita thinobia, Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
Felis margarita scheffeli, (Pakistan Sand Cat) Pakistan
Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...

F. m. thinobia is sometimes regarded as a separate species; F. m. scheffeli is listed by CITES as endangered

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters....
, although IUCN only lists it as 'near threatened' as of 2001.

Sand Cat

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