Sand cats are fascinating creatures, but unfortunately, they are not suited for domestic life. Many people love the sand cat's appearance. So like a cute, and special domestic cat which encourages the belief that they could be a nice, exotic pet. Unfortunately, this is a genuine wild cat with a wild cat temperament. They are just as wild as a Bengal tiger in the wild.
So from an attitude perspective they are pretty hard to live with. You can tame one and make them semi-domesticated but that wouldn't do either. Not much fun for the owner. They'll be noisy and the noise they make will not be the cute meow of the domestic cat.
When people live with wild cats their lives are disturbed by the experience. Far better to leave the sand cat in the wild. And you have to consider other issues too such as where the sand cat came from? A stolen kitten from a desert to be sold on the illegal black market? That sort of thing happens.
There many stories of failed or half-failed attempts to live with the two most popular wild cat species to be considered pets: the serval and the caracal. Many escape the home as it is far to small a home range for them. If and when they escape you can guess what can happen to them: panic in the neighbourhood and not infrequently the death of the cat.
You'll see them on the internet. Of they are social media celebrities which allow the owner to become celebrities vicariously. Not good I am afraid. Exploitation comes to mind.
Lastly you just don't see sand cat pets. People understand that it does not work.
Here are some more summarised reasons provided by Bing. This section is provided by Bing's AI bot: co-pilot and it is pretty poor to be honest in terms of answering the question. But it is here because this is the sort of info you'll see on other sites! 😎 And they are worse than this one on this sort of topic.
Natural Habitat: Sand cats are native to deserts across parts of Africa and Asia. They prefer dry habitats with little vegetation, living in sandy, dry plains and rocky valleys. Their range includes the Sahara Desert in Algeria, Niger, and Morocco, as well as the Arabian Peninsula and parts of central Asia such as Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. They are deeply adapted to desert living not living room living (my added comment - see link above).
Legal Restrictions: Keeping a sand cat as a pet is not recommended (highly so). In the United States, 35 states have banned keeping big cats as pets. Although sand cats are smaller than cheetahs or lions, they could still fall into the “big cat” category. Additionally, they are generally considered exotic animals, which makes them off-limits for pet ownership. Only six states (Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Delaware, and Oklahoma) do not ban or regulate having big cats as pets.
Conservation Programs: The appropriate place for a captive sand cat is within a conservation program. While sand cats are not endangered, ongoing efforts aim to conserve and protect the species. These programs ensure that sand cats can continue to thrive in their natural habitats where they should stay. Sorry.
In summary, while sand cats may be captivating, it’s best to appreciate them from a distance and support conservation efforts rather than attempting to keep them as pets.🙄🐈⬛
To the question in the title the answer is YES. I will quote two real experts on this topic: Mel and Fiona Sunquist.
They say:
Given the nature of its desert habitat, it is not surprising that the sand cat can survive without free-standing water. Indeed, for most of the year, these cats do not drink, but obtain sufficient moisture from their prey. One captive fed on fresh rodents and birds refused all freshwater and did not drink for two months, but another drank freely. Though they can live without water, wild sand cats will drink when water is available; in the eastern Karakum, their tracks have been found around pools of water.
Mel and Fiona are the authors of probably the best book on the wild cats: Wild Cats of the World. Their reference for the above information is:
Heptner WG and AA Sludskii 1992 Mammals of the Soviet Union and
Roberts TJ 1977 The mammals of Pakistan
Here is a picture of a sand cat by me using Canva.
The popular sand cat may be more endangered than people think. A study completed fairly recently in southern Morocco discovered that sand cats have much larger home ranges than previously thought. And they travel far greater distances during the night than previously believed.
For example, one male cat that they tracked over a year covered 232.4 km². In all, the study radio tracked 22 individuals.
One individual travelled over 1758 km² (679 mi²) in just over six months. The sand cat's home range is similar if not greater than those of the big cats such as the jaguar and leopard. And certainly, they travel the most of any small cat and have the largest home ranges of all the small cats.
Image: MikeB (copyright protected).
Implications for conservation
What does this mean in terms of conservation? Well, the people in charge of assessing the vulnerability of flora and fauna including the small wild cat species, estimate the population sizes of these cats. They have to estimate them because they're very hard to count. This particularly applies to the sand cat for the reason as stated that they are spread out over a very large area and are secretive.
And one way they can estimate numbers is to estimate their density in a certain area. This means that they estimate how many cats there are in a certain area within their distribution. If that estimate is incorrect and they, for example, believe that there are more cats than there really are over a set area, they will then have an incorrect estimation of the entire population size of that species.
And this recent research indicates that they are spread out, as mentioned, far more than they thought and therefore their density is far lower than they thought. This should lead to a re-evaluation of the population size of the sand cat across the planet and in turn this may lead to a re-evaluation of their vulnerability to extinction in the wild by the IUCN Red List experts who I have difficult trusting!
Underestimates as to vulnerability
Incidentally, on a separate topic, I have always thought that the IUCN Red List underestimate, in general terms, the vulnerability of the wild cat species. And I have wondered whether they are being lobbied by the sport hunters for this reason. That is highly speculative but a reasonable suggestion.
There is in fact some evidence that they are being pressured by people whose interest is against the conservation of animals because they want the freedom to use and abuse those animals and if they are big enough and interesting enough to shoot them for pleasure (sport hunting).
And there is a lot of money in sport hunting. It is normally the wealthy who engage in it and they can apply pressure to conservationists in various ways through their associations and clubs.
At the moment the sand cat is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List people. As the classification suggests, the conservationists are unconcerned about this small cat species becoming extinct.
They don't regard the species as vulnerable in the wild. But they could be wrong.
Finally, the sand cat does very badly in captivity because they become ill very quickly. Therefore, humankind cannot fall back on zoo sand cats in order to save the species if things get very bad.
The sand cat, a small wild cat, lives in the sandy desert. In the former Soviet Union they like to occupy desert areas of sparse vegetation and sandy ridges and hills. They can live in areas where there is little vegetation but rarely amongst sand dunes. In Africa they are found in the Sahara where it is flat and open and where tufts of grass grow. The sand cat distribution is fragmented - from the western Sahara to Uzbekistan.
Leopards are very adaptable and will live in a wide range of habitats but not true deserts. The African wildcat is found widely throughout Africa but is absent only from true desert and tropical forest.
The Black-footed cat often sleeps in hollow termite hills. This cat prefers desert habitat with little vegetation. This cat gets all the water it needs from prey; rodents, lizards and insects.
Feral cats will not find the desert to their liking. It takes a specialist cat and feral cats are generalists in terms of prey and survival.
The sand Cat. This is a thumbnail. Photo by carinemily (Flickr - opens new window). As can be seen this is a small cat averaging 6lbs in weight, a little under the average of domestic cats I would have thought (see Largest Domestic Cat Breed (new window) for size comparisons)
The scientific name for this small wildcat is Felis margarita and four (src: IUCN) subspecies have been “classically” described. Other sources say that there are 6 sub species:
The IUCN Red List for Threatened Species™ classify this cat NT – Near Threatened - “species or lower taxa that may be considered threatened with extinction in the near future, although it does not currently qualify for the threatened status. As such the IUCN (new window) notes the importance of re-evaluating Near Threatened taxa often or at appropriate intervals.” (src: Wikipedia®). The listing of Near Threatened would seem to be under review as further research may indicate a different classification. Further research is needed generally.
The assessment is based on these findings:
Described as rare by experts
Low population (effectively less than 10,000) and a possible decline in numbers projected of more than 30%. The trend however is unknown.
Fragmented range
Degradation of desert habitat
Decline in prey
Range, Habitat & Ecology
The Sand Cat is able to survive in temperatures ranging from −5 °C to 52 °C (126 °F). The Sand cat is found in the following countries:
Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Islamic Republic of, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Western Sahara, Yemen. Presence uncertain: Afghanistan, Chad, Iraq, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mali, Qatar, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia.
The map was made by me from a blank world map made by User:Vardion and adapted by User:E Pluribus Anthony for Wikipedia®. This is permitted under under Wikimedia® creative commons license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. The source is IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ . This is a fairly rough map but gives a good idea of the range. To get a feel for what the landscape is like on the ground the picture below is of the Caspian sea coast from Turkmenbashi headland, Turkmenistan. The picture is a thumbnail and is by Citt (Flickr - new window):
And this is a Google map of the area:
View Larger Map
Note the sandy desert terrain and sparse vegetation where they feed on small rodent prey. They burrow so the soil cannot be compacted. They have acute hearing, greater in range and sensitivity to the domestic cat which is used to hunt nocturnally. Other prey includes:
Spiny Mice
Gerbils
Jerboas
Small birds (Desert Lark)
Desert Monitor
Fringe-toed lizards
Sandfish
Short-fingered Gecko
Horned and Sand vipers
Arabian toad-head lizards
Insects
The Sand Cat is well adapted to desert life being able to survive off the body fluids of prey instead of drinking water. As mentioned, they are nocturnal hunters with a large range of 16 km² to 40 km² .
habitat loss and degradation through human activity e.g. livestock grazing.
drought affecting vegetation
feral and domestic dogs and cats competing and disease
traps to protect livestock
shot (SE Arabia)
Conservation:
Included on CITES Appendix II – “lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled” (src: CITES)
Hunting is banned in Niger, Pakistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan and Mauritania.
Protected areas e.g. Tassili n’ Ajjer and Ahaggar National Parks (Algeria) and Moteh and Touran protected areas (Iran).
This is an early post to which I added the above text etc....
Sand cat copyright Nick Lawes
The Sand Cat looks very much like a domestic cat and there is good evidence, apparently, to suggest that this small wild cat was domesticated by the ancient Egyptians. I wonder, as this wildcat looks so like a domestic cat and has a weight and size very similar to a domestic cat, if it was in fact a domestic cat at one stage. If not, one can very much see in this cat how the wild cat came in from the wild some 9,000 years ago and became domesticated. It would be quite a small step.
Another cat with acute hearing (due in part to very large ear flaps) designed to hear rodents underground is the Serval. The Serval is bred with a domestic cat (Bengal) to produce the Savannah, a majestic cat. The Serval although wild is tamed to be a domestic cat, albeit rarely and under carefully controlled conditions.
Other wild cats that are important to us and which look like domestic cats are the American Bobcat and Scottish Wildcat. Both are bigger than the Sand cat however.
