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🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries
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16 summaries on sand cat
Research overview: assessing extinction risk in small wildcats
OverviewThis overview examines how the extinction risk of small wildcats is assessed and the difficulties involved. Status assessments draw on distribution, population size and trend, habitat, and threats to…
Research overview: behavioural water conservation through nocturnality and shelter use
OverviewBehaviour is a frontline defence against water loss in the desert, and this overview reviews how desert cats use timing and shelter to stay hydrated. By being active in the cooler night and resting in…
Research overview: challenges of detecting and surveying sand cats
OverviewFew cats are as difficult to study as the sand cat, and this overview reviews the methodological problems that leave its status uncertain. The species low density, nocturnality, remote desert habitat,…
Research overview: evaporative water loss, panting, and grooming trade-offs
OverviewCooling and water conservation can conflict, and this overview reviews how desert cats navigate evaporative water loss. Cats cool partly by evaporation, through panting and through saliva spread by gr…
Research overview: metabolic water production from a high-protein diet
OverviewAnimals generate water internally when they metabolise food, and this overview reviews the role of metabolic water for desert cats. Oxidising the fat and protein in prey yields water as a by-product,…
Research overview: renal concentrating ability and urine economy in arid-adapted cats
OverviewProducing concentrated urine conserves water, and this overview reviews the kidney function that supports desert cats. Like other arid-adapted mammals, desert cats are thought to produce highly concen…
Research overview: reproduction and breeding in sand cats
OverviewThe desert-dwelling sand cat presents distinctive reproductive characteristics shaped by its arid environment and has been bred in captivity with mixed success. This overview surveys what is known abo…
Research overview: sand cat adaptations to desert life
OverviewThe sand cat is a textbook example of desert specialization, and this overview reviews the suite of adaptations that let it thrive where temperatures swing sharply and water is scarce. Dense fur cover…
Research overview: sand cat burrow use and shelter behavior
OverviewShelter is central to sand cat survival, and this overview compiles what is known about its use of burrows. The cat digs shallow burrows or enlarges those of foxes, porcupines, and rodents, retreating…
Research overview: sand cat diet of rodents and reptiles
OverviewDietary studies describe the sand cat as a hunter of small desert vertebrates, with gerbils and other rodents forming the core of the diet alongside lizards, snakes, birds, and insects. This overview…
Research overview: sand cat distribution across the world deserts
OverviewThe sand cat is the only felid largely confined to true desert, ranging in scattered populations across the Sahara, the Arabian Peninsula, and the deserts of central Asia. This overview compiles recor…
Research overview: sand cat nocturnal activity and thermoregulation
OverviewThis overview examines how the sand cat schedules activity to survive desert extremes. Telemetry and observation show the species is strongly nocturnal, emerging after dark to hunt and travel long dis…
Research overview: the sand cat as a model of desert adaptation
OverviewThe sand cat is the only cat truly living in deserts, and this overview reviews its suite of adaptations as a model of arid-zone survival. Beyond drawing water from prey, the sand cat copes with extre…
Research overview: water economy and dietary moisture in desert-dwelling cats
OverviewSeveral small cats thrive in deserts, and this overview reviews how they manage water balance where free water is scarce. Desert cats such as the sand cat obtain much of their water from the bodies of…
Research synthesis: sand cat conservation status
ReviewThis synthesis reviews the conservation standing of the sand cat, generally assessed as low risk but acknowledged to rest on sparse data. It weighs threats including habitat degradation from grazing a…
The Late Miocene radiation of modern Felidae: a genetic assessment
PaperThis landmark genetic study reconstructed the evolutionary history of the cat family, using molecular data across all living felid species to resolve the major lineages and their divergence times. It…
Johnson WE, Eizirik E, Pecon-Slattery J, Murphy WJ, Antunes A, Teeling E, OBrien SJ · Science · 2006
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