Sand Cat Habitat Map
Instead they live in dry sandy plains and rocky valleys.
Sand cat habitat map. South Africa Botswana Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Large ears and thickly furred pads are special adaptations that allow the cat to detect underground prey and survive in extreme conditions. The results showed that about 75 of the total area is suitable for sand cat.
Their primary threats are habitat destruction from battles as well as livestock grazing and indiscriminate killing of this elusive wild cat. Sand cats live in three distinct regions of the world. They are solitary outside of mating season.
They are nocturnal in their native habitat. Native to southern Africa. Established in 1964 the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the worlds most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal fungi and plant species.
The Sand Cat Felis margarita is one of the few wild cat species occurring in very dry desert habitat. Vulnerable arid ecosystems are being rapidly degraded by human settlement and activity especially livestock grazing Allan and Warren 1993 Al-Sharhan et al. Wars and political strife harms the sand cat by harming its habitat.
Due to the remote harsh terrains of its habitat limited research has been conducted and populations. Habitat Sand Cats live in the deserts of north Africa and south west Asia. Sand cats habitat suitability map was generated by linear combination of the standardized and relatively weighted NDVI and BI indices and then categorized into five classes of most suitable highly suitable moderately suitable least suitable and not suitable.
The sand cats ears are large and set widely apart and low on the sides of the head. Habitat includes dry deserts. They are active at night and spend their days in an underground burrow.