IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group Library

IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library

View printer friendly
Breton, G.
Sand Cat International Studbook Volume XXI
2013 Series
Due to its small size, its perfect camouflage and its nocturnal habits, the Sand Cat (Felis Margarita) is not an easy species to observe in the wild. Moreover, its habitat is remote and harsh for humans and most sand cats are present in countries where political instability occurs and/or where access to Westerners is limited and complicated. Finally, within the scientific local and international communities, the research interest in this species is low, probably because of the difficulties mentioned above and the lack of direct applications for Humans. After the study of Brodie (2009), who searched and counted the number of scientific peer-reviewed publications and articles from other serious journals for each Felid species from 1986 to 2007, only three publications deal with sand cat in-situ studies... Consequently, there is to-date no accurate information of the species number, only estimations from leading scientists and wildlife managers who believe the sand cat effective population size should not exceed 10,000 animals with no subpopulation having an effective size above 1.000 (Mallon, 2011).
	PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here