Sand Cat Habitat And Food
Sand cats are mostly carnivorous and eat a variety of prey such as gerbils sand voles hares spiders reptiles birds insects and venomous snakes.
Sand cat habitat and food. Arabian Sand Cat Distribution Habitat and Ecology. It mainly inhabits largely the deserts of northern Africa. This animals sand colored coat is hard to see against dry bushes and sand and acts as protection for it.
Farmers shepherd dogs sometimes kill sand cats. The Sand Cat primarily occupies sandy deserts but has also been recorded in stony and rocky deserts. The magnificent Arabian Sand Cat appears to have a widespread though disjointed distribution.
Vulnerable arid ecosystems are being rapidly degraded by human settlement and activity especially livestock grazing Allan and Warren 1993 Al-Sharhan et al. It prefers areas of sparse vegetation mixed with sandy and rocky areas which supports rodent and small bird prey. The sand cat also known as the sand dune cat is a small wild cat that inhabits sandy and stony deserts far from water sources.
Carnivorous feeding mainly on desert rodents such as jerboas as well as birds lizards and invertebrates. In North Africa the cat appears in numerous locations. Sand cats are found in both sandy and stony desert.
Local people sometimes trap sand cats for pets. Its head-and-body length ranges from 3952 cm with a 2331 cm long tail. When it gets too hot or cold they retreat into a burrow.
The sand cat hunts animals to eat prey at night when it is cooler. Instead they live in dry sandy plains and rocky valleys. They are found near the patches of sparse vegetation that can support their prey species and the cats have special adaptations to survive in the extreme desert conditions.