In 2017, a single short 18-second video posted on YouTube by wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntashir brought an unexpected major breakthrough to North African ecosystem research. The main character in the video was a cute little cat curled up under the shade of a shrub in the Libyan desert, “Sandcat (Felis margarita).”
CNN reported on the 22nd (local time) that the video was belatedly recognized as the first official evidence in history of the habitat of sand cats in Libya through a paper “Rediscovering the Ghost of the Desert” published in February in the Journal of Arid Environments.
Almuntashir accidentally witnessed and filmed a sand cat in Alhamma, southwestern Libya, but believed it was an animal that had already been reported to academia. However, things completely changed when Firas Haider, an expert on small carnivores in North Africa, watched a YouTube video and got in touch.
There have been fragmentary rumors about the habitat of sand cats in Libya, but not a single scientifically verified official record.
Since then, seven collaborators, including Haider and Almuntasir, have collected data from sandcat sightings across Libya over eight years. Sand cats are difficult to track because their footprints quickly scatter in the wind, and hide in caves during the day, so they are called “the ghosts of the desert.” However, Almuntashir scoured the desert with local guides to obtain 24 of the 36 observation records himself.
“Sand cats may be common animals for local governments and locals, but they are the first historical record in history to prove their habitat in Libya,” Haider said.
The researchers pointed out that southwestern Libya is likely to be a major base for sand cats, but emphasized that ecological research to protect them is still extremely insufficient.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies sand cats as “Least Concern” based on a 2014 evaluation, but researchers are raising their voices that this evaluation should be improved.
Small carnivores, such as sand cats, are very sensitive to rising temperatures and act as the first ‘ecosystem alarm’ to notify habitat destruction. Nevertheless, they are exposed to the risk of illegal trafficking and capture. There are continuous reports of sand cats being illegally traded as pets or captured for meat by some hunters in Libya’s local market.
Researcher Haider said, “The lack of awareness of wildlife across North Africa is increasing conflicts between humans and wildlife,” adding, “It is urgent to change public perception and come up with conservation measures before these ‘ghosts of the desert’ disappear like real ghosts in Libya.”
