Sand Cats Enjoy Family Outing
This mom and her kittens are taking some time to relax
Wildlife photographer Talal Al Rabah (Talal92 on Instagram) brings us this video of a mother sand cat and her kittens in Kuwait. It’s a wonderful capture, particularly considering how shy and well-camouflaged sand cats are in the wild. Mom’s got her hands (paws?) full—that’s a big litter! They sure are cute, though.
Sand cats are found in the wild in sandy and stony deserts that are discontinuously distributed in northern Africa, the deserts of the Arabian peninsula and the Middle East. Champions of desert life, they are able to live away from water sources and are able to satisfy their moisture requirements through the prey that they catch. A sand cat’s ears are wide and triangular, particularly well-designed for hearing and targeting in on prey. This includes small rodents, small reptiles and invertebrates, birds and even some venomous vipers. Their pale tawny fur helps them blend into the sandy dunes that they prefer where they spend their days napping in underground dens, readying for nightly hunting excursions. They are solitary creatures except during mating season, and for females during kitten-raising. Litters typically consist of two to three kittens, making our subject sand cat of the day an extraordinary outlier.
Source for today’s gif below:
You can see more of Talal’s work (and buy some too if you’d like) at Fine Art America.
spend their days napping
some things never change
Sand kittens for the win!