It is very difficult to distinguish the different species of sand cat. Their location is generally the best clue to decide if they are Felis margarita. F harrisoni, or F thinobia. Zoo animals are often not identified by species for various reasons.

I have sent your comment to a sand cat researcher but he is out of the office for just over a week. One of us will get back to you then.

Hi! I’m a field biologist by training, but also archaeologist documenting archaeology for NEOM in Northern Saudi Arabia west of Tabuk. Since I’m seeing lots of wild cat prints in sand dunes, if there’s more info as to what sand cat prints MIGHT look like (as opposed to Caracal) in wild dune habitats, we’ve been seeing small burrows and wildcat scat as well. If we can help add any information, this is for a future development project so would be good to be able to accurately document any good info! If you have any resources we could use for ID, thanks in advance!

Yes sand cats are listed as Least Concern. This is because their population is scattered across northern Africa and the Middle East. No one knows how many animals there are out there as they are impossible to research in an area that large.

Yes sand cats are classed as Least Concern by the World Conservation Union. The reason for this is that their population is so scattered over so many countries in northern Africa and the Middle East, and no one knows how many sand cats there are in the wild. A few sightings have been made in various countries but the population had never been studied as a whole.

If you’re talking about the sand cat fact sheet, it was probably written about 2010. Like all our fact sheets though, it is updated when ever there is new information from scientists.